Reviewed by James
Karas
Harold Pinter’s No
Man’s Land is an intricate and intriguing play that has all the
hallmarks of its creator’s work. There is the undercurrent of violence, the
uncertainty about truth and fantasy, the pauses, the shifting quicksand where
ambiguity is certainty.
We find two men in a large room
that looks rather forbidding and has only two chairs and a well-stocked bar.
They just met in a pub in Hampstead and the house belongs to Hirst (Patrick
Stewart). He is smartly dressed and appears to be a man of means.
The guest Spooner (Ian McKellen)
is an elderly man dressed in a frayed and cheap suit wearing an ill-becoming corduroy
hat. The two men proceed to drink large quantities of scotch as we listen to
them and try get to know them as much or as little as possible because we can
never be sure of the veracity of what they are saying.
Damien Molony, Owen Teale, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen
Spooner is a garrulous, erudite
and literate poet who collects the beer mugs from the table in a local pub. He
is also obsequious towards Hirst, nervous and…well, he has a problem or many
problems but we are not sure what they are. He keeps his coat on his arm and
talks about leaving but never does.
Hirst is laconic, aristocratic
and tolerant of Spooner. But he reacts violently at the mention of his wife and
tosses a glass at Spooner. He then falls down on all fours and crawls out of the room.
We then meet Briggs (Owen Teale)
and Foster (Damien Molony) a couple of thugs who refer to Hirst as their host
and are not friendly towards Spooner. At one time Briggs produces a rope and
appears ready to strangle Spooner.
We pause at the end of the first
act. We are watching masterful performances by outstanding actors. Stewart and
McKellen can read the menu of a fast-food restaurant and arrest our attention
with their resonant voices, their mellifluous intonation and their sheer
handling of language.
Pinter’s poetic language and many
of the flourishes that he gives the actors come out clearly, meticulously and
captivatingly.
By the end of the first act power
seems to have shifted to the two servants, the thugs. When the lights go on for
the second act, Spooner is alone and finds the door locked. He muses that he
has known this before in a house of silence and strangers.
Now Spooner and Hirst seem to
have known each other from their days at Oxford and they begin reminiscing
about the good old days, about conquests and adulteries that may have happened
or are total fantasies. They speak of dreams, of poetry (they are both poets),
of successes.
No Man’s Land was first
produced in 1975 with John Gielgud as Spooner and Ralph Richardson as Hirst,
directed by Peter Hall. The current production, directed by Sean Mathias,
showcases four superb actors, but especially Stewart and McKellen reading each
other’s thoughts in unforgettable performances.
Seeing the play on the large
screen with close-ups of the actors’ faces one can follow every eye and eyebrow
movement and get a much better view of their reactions.
This is theatre at its best.
_______
No Man’s Land
by Harold Pinter will be shown again at various Cineplex
Cinemas on January 21, 2017. For more information visit http://www.cineplex.com/events
No comments:
Post a Comment