Ariel Dorfman (1942-...) is an Argentine-Chilean-American playwright, essayist, journalist, academic and human rights activist. Born in Buenos Aires, he grew up in New York and spent his adolescence in Chile. He studied at the University of Santiago, where he later taught, and in 1968 published his thesis on Harold Pinter, who became a close friend.

Between 1970 and 1973 he was an adviser to the Allende government, but he left Chile after the Pinochet coup and did not return until 1990, following the restoration of democracy. Since then, he has divided his time between Santiago and the United States.

He has written short stories, novels, screenplays, poetry, opera libretti, and, of course, plays. His articles have also regularly been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Le Monde and L’Unità. Death and the maiden, which won an Olivier Award, established him on the international theatre scene. It is one of the three plays, along with Reader and Widows (written with the American dramatist Tony Kushner) that form the Resistance Trilogy, which has entered the canon of Latin American literature. His work is political and deals with issues relating to human rights, exile and displacement. At the same time, he focusses on the value of culture, its role in helping us understand the world, and the power it has to inspire change.

 

A short list of his plays: 
Death and the maiden [La muerte y la doncella], Reader, Widows speak truth to power: Voices from beyond the dark, The other side, Purgatorio, Picasso’s closet.

 

Why I didn’t call out. I knew that if that happened you’re supposed to scream, so
people can know who is—call out your name, I’m Paulina Salas, they’re kidnapping me, if you don’t scream out that first moment you’re already defeated, and I submitted too easily, obeyed them right away without even a gesture of defiance. All my life, I’ve always been too obedient (The death and the maiden)