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Post by GreenEyesToo on Feb 8, 2013 18:56:50 GMT
This review got 5 stars out of 5!  Reviewer Stephen Bates
The Public Reviews Rating: *****/5 In 2011 at the same theatre (then named The Comedy), Ian Rickson directed what many regard as the definitive version of Pinter’s 1978 play Betrayal, which depicted a love triangle of two men and a woman. Now he returns with the same leading actor to direct this three-hander for two women and a man, so expectations were high.
This play dates from 1971 and is set in the country home of Deeley, a film-maker, and his wife Kate. The third character is Anna, who had been Kate’s room-mate 20 years earlier. The three recollect events from the past which may have really happened, may have been distorted by time or may have been invented. We are never told. Kate is brunette, brooding and introverted, Anna is blond, flamboyant and outgoing. Do they represent two sides of the same woman? Well, probably, but this is too simplistic to be the complete answer and Pinter never lets us off so lightly. He asks us to ponder on how our present lives can be shaped by what we think may have happened in the past just as much as by what actually happened and on how the people that we once were inhabit us as much as the people that we later became.
The art of acting Pinter lies in an understanding of what is meant but not always written. In Betrayal, the character of Emma is defined by her duplicity and, when playing her in Rickson’s production, Kristin Scott Thomas frequently needed to speak a line whilst conveying to the audience that her character is thinking the exact opposite. In achieving this so successfully, she marked herself as a consummate actor of Pinter. Her mature beauty and natural elegance can mask an inner turmoil that is revealed only by the slightest changes in body language, maybe no more than a flicker or a grimace, but, without needing words, she is able to project the truth within of the character that the writer has created.
In this play, the characters are not deceiving others so much as themselves as they recall past events and emotions, struggling to distinguish what is real and what is not and it takes an actor with Scott Thomas’s skills to convey this to an audience. She is matched here more than adequately by Lia Williams. The two are alternating the roles of Kate and Anna and this reviewer saw Scott Thomas as Anna and Williams as Kate. Rufus Sewell is also superb as Deeley, veering between playfulness and exasperated rage.
The production values are high. Hildegard Bechtler’s sparsely furnished but richly coloured sets and Peter Mumford’s lighting contribute to the sombre and reflective atmosphere that prevails throughout as does Stephen Warbeck’s haunting piano music, particularly in the wordless closing moments.
As always with Pinter, many questions are posed but straightforward answers are never given. Running for just 80 minutes without an interval, this play is enigmatic, perhaps even baffling, but it will linger in the mind long after the curtain falls. Maybe this production of the play will be talked of 20 years hence as the one that could never be bettered and maybe such recollections will be true.
www.thepublicreviews.com/old-times-harold-pinter-theatre-london/(I love that last sentence.  |
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Post by kygal on Feb 9, 2013 13:27:34 GMT
Great one. Thanks!
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Post by GreenEyesToo on Feb 9, 2013 13:49:04 GMT
This one's another goodie (as ever, spoilers):
Old Times at the Harold Pinter Theatre
You could say it’s a play about nostalgia. But it’s more complicated than that.
by Edward Lukes Feb 04 2013
The scenario is straightforward: a woman visits her old, now married, friend after many years. The exposition less so. As the three reminisce, memories become distorted and history manipulated, as they battle for supremacy in their accounts of the past. Old Times is a fascinating exploration of relationships and has a mysterious edge, it keeps the truth about this trio hidden, and as a result this play is as gripping as it is intelligent.
Director Ian Rickson is experienced with Harold Pinter’s work, and it shows. The writer loved triangular relationships, he was a master with them, and this skill is matched in a careful, rich, production. The acting is intense, intentionally affected, with every word and gesture full of potential: the possibility of a laugh or a slap. The dialogue is a constant competition, and the heavyweight cast – Kristin Scott Thomas, Lia Williams and Rufus Sewell – all excel at it. Each manages to traverse the fine line between humour and suspense that is peculiar to Pinter. It’s a surprise to see how much fun they seem to have. Sewell brings an impishness to his role, at times camp, as well as the requisite menace as his character tries to dominate the group. His development into what Pinter described as “a man defeated by women” is a huge achievement. Scott Thomas and Williams bring real charge and their every physical interaction bristles with sexual tension.
A common theory about Old Times is that the two actresses play different sides of the same person, a concept given weight here by Scott Thomas and Williams alternating their roles. But some (or all?) of the characters might be dead, in some kind of Satre-esque Hell, or they might just be plain silly with some peculiar kinks going on. Whatever your idea Old Times is always captivating.
For my money this is a problem play that you aren’t supposed to solve. The wonder of it is in its construction, like the dynamics of the relationships that it explores – it’s enough to see these picked apart and rebuilt over and over. Pinter toys with the audience. The joy of Rickson’s production is to see that game played so well.
www.thelondonmagazine.co.uk/Going-Out/Reviews/Old-Times-at-the-Harold-Pinter-Theatre.html |
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Post by lovethemanrs on Feb 10, 2013 11:43:07 GMT
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Post by GreenEyesToo on Feb 10, 2013 12:54:59 GMT
He probably won't bother - this way he stands out.....as a plonker, but he still stands out!  I'm glad you're enjoying the reviews I'm posting, LTM.  Here are a couple more: Must see: Old Times
Role reversals galvanise a rich and robust Pinter revival
Paul Taylor Friday 08 February 2013
Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams continue the theatrical tradition of the role-swap in Ian Rickson's compelling revival of Harold Pinter's 1971 play.
Depending on when you go, each actor will portray either Kate, the wife of a film director (brilliantly played by Rufus Sewell), or Anna, a flatmate of Kate's from her London days, who visits the couple after a 20-year gap.
The piece is a three-hander in which the threatened husband and the newcomer engage in a fight to the death for possession of the mysteriously withdrawn Kate. What the swapping illustrates is how adjustments to the chemistry can intriguingly alter the play's dynamic. Williams is liable to lapse into mannered portentousness but Scott Thomas brings an almost vulgar comic verve to Anna's satirically knowing sexuality.
Old Times can seem self-conscious, but Rickson's haunting yet robust account offers positive reasons to be in two minds about it.
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/must-see-old-times-harold-pinter-theatre-london-sw1-8485451.htmlHarold Pinter’s Old Times
February 6, 2013 9:00 am
Article by Rachel Fellows
Ideally, you should see Ian Rickson’s production of Harold Pinter’s Old Times twice, due to the two female leads in this cryptic story being played alternately by actresses Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams, with Rufus Sewell sandwiched in the middle. This astonishing production toils with Pinter’s themes of identity and memory to confuse the audience, and the result is nothing short of electric.
This is the first Harold Pinter play to be shown since the former Comedy Theatre was renamed after him. Highly enigmatic, it is the play in which Pinter himself starred when it transferred to Broadway in 1985. First performed in 1971, Old Times was dedicated to and directed by the great Sir Peter Hall with interpretations continuing to differ over who the characters, Deeley, Kate and Anna exactly are – if they can all have existed at the same time and whose memories are to be trusted. It is a lesson in the power of the mind and the unreliability of memory, as the three characters battle to make sense of events that have no doubt been mentally corrupted over the years.
Deeley and his wife, Kate, are preparing to welcome Anna to their quiet seaside home. Once Kate’s only friend, they haven’t seen each other for some 20 years. Deeley, played by Rufus Sewell, has previously heard nothing of this old chum of his wife’s and is intrigued. A gleefully prying schoolboy who wants to know everything, Sewell shows us a cheeky, quirky, confident persona with that famous glint in his eye.
Kristin Scott Thomas as Kate is withdrawn and reticent in talking about her former friendship – either she can’t or she won’t remember much about it – brooding with a power that only she can muster: pregnant silences and distant gazes are occasionally interjected with sharp, sometimes cutting remarks. It takes a special gift to be able to move an entire theatre with the merest crook of your neck. She occasionally seems amused by the conversation that wafts on around her, and sometimes irritation creeps into her eyes, but her Kate is unnervingly controlled until her final, terrifying outburst towards the end.
Lia Williams is somewhat brassy as Anna, gasping for breath as she waxes lyrical about the good old days in London when the two women were girls, everything sounding just that bit too good to be true. Deeley and Anna bond over their shared mischievous streak, flirting over the things she and Kate may have got up to in their youth, but such dangerous playfulness always ends in tears, and Anna’s visit quickly unravels as even the nonchalant Deeley gets riled by the snatched glances and whispers between the two women that suggest there might have been more to their relationship than pure friendship.
Deeley and Anna increasingly compete for Kate’s attention until the competition becomes fearsome when Deeley finally bellows that his wife’s passion is his “province.” The tension thus evoked between all sides of this love triangle is both palpable and nerve-wracking. Sewell’s performance is incredibly moving, progressing from jester to wreck as the foundations of his marriage are shaken. During what start out as light-hearted discussions of the past, Deeley is forced to dredge up emotions, to accept that the treasured memories of his wife may not have been as special as he thought.
“I remember you dead,” Kate yells at Anna, who has been forced onto the floor and writhes in fear. Kate has a memory of Anna in their old flat, lying lifeless with dirt covering her face. Clearly that cannot be so if Anna is in front of her now, but the memories from all three characters start to seem dangerously conflated. You won’t necessarily reach the end of the play with an inkling of what’s really going on, but the joke does seem to be on Deeley or, as Pinter described him, “the man defeated by women.”
There is an interpretation of Old Times that posits Kate and Anna as the same person – two sides of the same tortured personality – which would make sense of the confused and unlikely memories that don’t tally. Although there is no explicit endorsement of this theory at the Harold Pinter Theatre, swapping the female roles between the two leads does rather lend itself to this explanation. I can’t decide if Scott Thomas would be more suited to playing Anna, but it would be interesting to observe the different nuances of conversation and facets of character which could be brought out with the luxury of two artistic visions rather than one. Seeing it twice might be the way to clear much of the muddle but that’s not to say one viewing isn’t 100% worth it. This is an affecting play performed astoundingly well – an acting masterclass – which the bold directing only makes more enticing.
www.arbuturian.com/2013/old-times |
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Post by kygal on Feb 10, 2013 13:42:31 GMT
Famous glint in his eye! Thanks GE2!
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Post by adina on Feb 13, 2013 13:19:34 GMT
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Post by kissmekate on Feb 13, 2013 13:23:15 GMT
Fantastic find. Thanks!  |
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Post by GreenEyesToo on Feb 13, 2013 13:51:09 GMT
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Post by rueful on Feb 13, 2013 15:08:28 GMT
Thanks for posting more great reviews, GE2!  I hope Rufus is enjoying all the praise as much as we are! Adina, thanks for the posting these fabulous pictures and the link! Great, great photography! I'll post my favourites (I'll resist and won't post those favourites which we already have ;D), but really, go and visit that site, 43 photos are there!  I think this one is a great illustration of "that famous glint in his eye"! ;D |
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Post by GreenEyesToo on Feb 15, 2013 20:00:51 GMT
Theatre review: Old Times at the Harold Pinter Theatre
Emily Govan Monday, February 11, 2013
3:50 PM
Haunting and mysterious Harold Pinter play boasts fantastic performances from Kristin Scott Thomas, Rufus Sewell and Lia Williams Harold Pinter’s plays are known for being multi-layered in meaning, and Old Times, directed here by Ian Rickson, is no different.
Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Rufus Sewell and Lia Williams, this is a seductive and compelling drama, with no one clear way to explain it.
Anna comes to visit her old friend and former housemate Kate for the first time in twenty years; Kate is now married and living in a secluded farmhouse in the countryside.
The women reminisce about their early days together in London, but with conflicting memories and underlying sexual tensions, the past feels vividly present.
Anna regales us with stories of the times in the swinging ‘60s when the two girls were carefree young secretaries, visiting coffee bars, clubs and bohemian pubs. You can really feel Pinter’s love for his London in the descriptions of haunts in Maida Vale and Edgware Road.
There’s palpable tension between Anna and Deeley as they compete for the watching Kate’s attentions, then the mood darkens and becomes manipulative and aggressive: but just who is playing who?
Things are not quite as they seem: we quickly see that the memories that are recounted are hazy to say the least, and that Deeley and Kate appear to discuss Anna as if she is not there. Is Anna actually present at all or could she be part of Kate and Deeley’s imagination?
In an interesting aspect of the show, Scott Thomas and Williams swap the roles of Anna and Kate nightly. On the night of my visit, Scott Thomas played the part of the charismatic, confident Anna, and Williams the part of the quiet, yet intrinsically powerful Kate.
Scott Thomas is compelling with a dazzling comedic edge to her portrayal of Anna, whilst Sewell is menacing as the swaggering Deeley.
With fantastic performances from all three performers, this haunting play will nonetheless leave you guessing at its meaning.
www.islingtongazette.co.uk/what-s-on/theatre/theatre_review_old_times_at_the_harold_pinter_theatre_1_1928664
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Post by lovethemanrs on Feb 15, 2013 22:02:41 GMT
GE2 posted:  Yeah, the reviews are really interesting...thanks for posting....keep 'em coming ;D |
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Post by robela on Feb 17, 2013 12:23:47 GMT
Thanks GE2 for posting these fantastic reviews. I have a review from the Guardian which iis good too. Four stars. Haven't got time to post it today but will do so (if it hasn't already been posted). Thanks Adina for posting the photos. Nice to see them posted on here even though there are a lot of photos about! Never too many photos of Rufus! ;D Just great that the play is deservedly being acclaimed!  |
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Post by GreenEyesToo on Feb 17, 2013 12:44:23 GMT
You're welcome, Robela! Here's another one I've found - with spoilers, of course: Theatre review: Old Times at Harold Pinter theatre, until April 6
17th Feb 2013 12:04pm | By Louise Kingsley
Rufus Sewell is quite extraordinary in this classy revival of the late Harold Pinter’s richly ambiguous 1971 memory play, a triangular power struggle which is as nebulous and mutable as swirling fog.
As forty-something filmmaker Deeley, he shares the stage with Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams – one of whom plays his wife Kate, the other Anna (her former flatmate and only friend from her days as a secretary in bohemian London) whom she hasn’t seen for 20 years.
Which actress plays which varies from night to night – mainly according to a schedule but, on some occasions, the decision is made by the flip of a coin.
Anna (Scott Thomas at the performance I saw) is a still flirtatious, confident blonde, whilst Williams’ Kate is quiet, mousy, unreadable.
Sewell’s initial indulgent amusement at the prospect of Anna’s visit changes to angry insecurity as he finds himself in a battle of memories - with Kate, and their past, as the prize.
There are suggestions that one – or more – characters are already dead, or, perhaps, that Anna and Kate (with their once-shared underwear) are different aspects of the same woman.
Pinter isn’t telling – but Ian Rickson’s enigmatic 80 minute production keeps you hooked whilst defying a definitive interpretation…. and I’ll be returning (under my own steam) to discover what insights the alternative casting might yield.
www.tntmagazine.com/london/stage/theatre-review-old-times-at-harold-pinter-theatre-until-april-6 |
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Post by rueful on Feb 18, 2013 13:50:42 GMT
They just keep coming, don't they? How wonderful! Thanks, GE2!
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I'm glad you're enjoying the reviews I'm posting, LTM. 
Here are a couple more:
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