Rapaccinni's Daughter (NHB Modern Plays)

The only play by Latin America's foremost living poet and the Mexican Nobel laureate. Based on a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. When Giovanni comes to stay in a room overlooking the strange overgrown garden of Dr Rappaccini, he has eyes only for his host's beautiful daughter. But many men before have been warned away from her, and slowly he discovers the terrible truth: that her father is using her as part of an experiment on the human will to live, and has turned her into a living phial of poison. Taken from the collection, Latin American Plays, an essential introduction to the fascinating but largely unexplored theatre of Latin America, Rappaccini's Daughter by Octavio Paz is a dramatic poem about love and the loss of innocence. The full collection features new translations of five contemporary plays written by some of the region's most exciting writers. Each play is accompanied by an illuminating interview with its author conducted by the theatre director, Sebastian Doggart, who has also selected and translated the plays and provided an introductory history of Latin American drama. The collection also includes: Night of the Assassins by José Triana A controversial Cuban play in which three siblings plot the murder of their parents. Saying Yes by Griselda Gambaro A controversial Cuban play in which three siblings plot the murder of their parents. Orchids in the Moonlight by Carlos Fuentes A grotesque comedy from Argentina about man's inhumanity to man. Mistress of Desires by Mario Vargas Llosa Peru's most acclaimed writer interweaves reality and fantasy in an erotically charged tale.

Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 - April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. He was awarded the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature. Paz published scores of works during his lifetime, many of which have been translated into other languages. His poetry has been translated into English by Samuel Beckett, and has been collected in Poemas 1935-1975 (1981) and Collected Poems, 1957-1987 (1987). Paz has also written a prolific body of essays, including several book-length studies, in poetics, literary and art criticism, as well as on Mexican history, politics and culture.