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Old Times "Pinter's precise, poetic language alternately darts and drifts out of the actors' mouths. His words are a joy to listen to, especially when they're delivered with the scrupulousness of these three players." |
"It's an hermetic encounter ripe for conflict, as Brian Prather's stark scenic and lighting design cues us: a modern, minimalist living room with two white chairs countered by a single black couch, the dark rear wall a curved, woven affair that feels alternately like a barrier and a protective enclosure. But before anyone appears, the audience hears a low ambient noise, probably the nearby sea, which sounds like the scratching of a record left on a turntable (the first notes of Don Tindall's subtle sound design). It's a nice aural metaphor for Pinter's signature pauses - not the music or dialogue matters but the interstices, the spaces in between, in which we attempt to make and remake meaning. Director Margarett Perry has smartly unfolded tight character conflicts before at the Kitchen: Brian Dykstra's "Clean Alternatives" and "Strangerhorse" and David Wiltse's "A Marriage Minuet." Here she has a local dream cast." |
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"Stylish and beautifully-staged -- a hundred subtle touches imply she's been thinking about this show for a long time. Fun is not a word one associated with Harold Pinter. You have to see it to believe it." |
