Critic and translator Maria Delgado created a new English translation of Latin poet, novelist and playwright Mario Benedetti’s Pedro and the Captain which played at the Battersea Arts Centre.

Based on the scribe’s experiences and interviews with police, army officials and insurgents recalling the Uruguayan junta (1968-85), the story brings home the realities of torture while serving as an inspiration to those who would resist.

The struggle in Uruguay — between the Tupamaros, former university graduates who became an urban guerrilla force, and the military — is represented by prisoner protagonist Pedro (Rufus Sewell), and his interrogator antagonist, the Captain (Mark Carlisle). Benedetti concentrates on torture’s physical manifestations and psychological dynamics in six tightly written, feverish scenes, while taking a page from the Greeks by leaving the acts of savagery offstage.

Head covered by a sack and hands tied in front of him, Pedro is thrown into a room where the Captain (a graduate of the School of the Americas torture academy in Fort Benning, Ga.) explains the rules to him: Silence is OK for the first session, but sooner or later everyone talks, depending how much abuse they’re willing to take; I can give you back your life, your wife, your child, your house; we know you know a lot of things; if you resist, we will rape your wife in front of you; if you cooperate, we will make it look like you did not cooperate to protect you from your comrades.

The commonality of torture throughout the world coupled with the intimacy of Benedetti’s language and the characters’ interrelationship make it impossible for the audience to avoid the drama’s personal implications as we consider how well we would hold up to beatings, finger nail removal and electrical burns.

However, Democracy has returned to Uruguay and those who survived the “dirty war” and “disappearances” are now in power. One hopes such an outcome is possible elsewhere as well, where torture, suicides, plane crashes, automobile accidents and heart attacks are all too common for those who hold damning information or key votes.

Cast included: Rufus Sewell, Mark Carlisle.