Pinter Plays Find Local Mini-Revival

Beginning in the mid-20^th Century through the early 21^st Century, British playwright Harold Pinter amassed a huge catalogue of plays, including The Birthday Party, The Homecomingand Betrayal.  The latter play opens tonight at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore.  That opening, plus the February run of Two by Pinter: The Collection and The Lover represent a mini-revival of local interest in the Nobel Prize winner. 

So why are his plays often left off of season lists?  Perhaps it has to do with the style of his works, often described by critics and scholars alike as "comedy of menace."  His style even has its own term, which is included in the Oxford English Dictionary, and may be a first for any playwright, including Shakespeare.  That term, "Pinteresque", is defined by the OED as "typically characterized by implications of threat and strong feeling produced through colloquial language, apparent triviality, and long pauses."  Indeed, that very style may be off-putting to even the most seasoned theatergoer.  Pinter's works require that you, as an audience member be 100% present, as you must often fill in the blanks for yourself.  In her notes in the Two by Pinter program, RepStage dramaturg Lisa A. Wilde elaborates on "Pinteresque" style: "a style that includes an economy and precise use of language, crisis situations, dialogue often used as aggression, and above all the famed use of pauses and silences."

Two by Pinter, directed by UMBC's Xerxes Mehta, offered a visually stunning, superbly acted study of what it is to be "Pinteresqe."  What follows is an analysis of that production in terms of the above definitions.  Obviously, even such a specific set of hallmarks allows much room for interpretation from any company producing the work.  I suspect that theatergoers (including this critic) attending Everyman's Betrayal will find similarities and differences between the productions, and that both will have kept a keen eye toward the genius of the playwright.

• "Economy and precise use of language"; "colloquial language":

Two by Pinter offered two one acts, "The Collection" and "The Lover".  Both featured relatively common British characters; that is, none were royalty, and everyone was working class, albeit the upper crust of the working class.  I found it striking how "every day" the level of language was, and how devoid it was of any sort of flourish – no similes or metaphors.  It was easy to see that all of the main characters in both pieces were educated by the exact words they spoke, but again, like most educated people, they didn't hit you over the head with their verbal prowess.  In "The Collection," that sort of "everyone is of equal station" blurred the lines for me about the exact relationship between two of the characters – Harry (Bill Largess) and Bill (Timothy Andres Pabon).  Was Harry Bill's manservant?  Personal assistant?  Lover?  Only until the play unfolded was that relationship made clearer (though not definitively).  Clearly, Pinter wants his audience to pay attention and figure things out for themselves.  The lack of back story and subtext through the use of such austere language forces just that.  Similarly, in "The Lover", Sarah (Marni Penning) and Richard (Nigel Reed)'s relationship is murky, but in a more comic way.  Throughout the play, both verbally spar and flirt.  It is only toward the very end that you discover that they are, in fact, married, and play sexual games in order to create fun for the characters and the audience alike.

• "The famed use of pauses and silences"

These pauses and silences serve several purposes.  First, they give the play a realism that most others don't have.  Reality is that even when you are in a room with another person, chances are there are several seconds, if not minutes, between spoken words.  Pinter purposely avoids being "talky", leaving implication and exposition mostly up to the audience as they watch for clues to plot and relationship rather than be told what to think. Of course, this also forces the actors to really pay attention to their non-verbals.  Both casts of Two by Pinter gave wonderful non-verbal performances.  And Pinter really ups the ante by dropping certain plot points just before a prolonged silence.  And as it sinks in with the audience, they immediately begin to apply what they have just learned to what they are now seeing.  A perfect example of this is a long silence between Harry and Bill in "The Collection."  Harry has received a menacing phone call from a complete stranger implicating Bill in a mysterious circumstance.  Harry tells Bill this.  Bill sits reading the paper for what feel like several minutes as we all await his explanation or denial or question.  During that awkward silence, brilliantly acted by Mr. Pabon and Mr. Largess, we see and feel a tension, a fear, anger, and more subtly, a relationship between the men.

• "Implications of Threat"; "crisis situations":

It is those aforementioned phone calls that clearly create a threatening environment in "The Collection."  The calls, heard in voice over, come at odd hours, from a man with a very even, almost unemotional tone.  His insistence at coming over to face Bill and Bill's obvious fear of the man – he has no idea who he is or how he knows him creates an almost unbearable tension as we wait together for the knock on Bill's door.  Later, in the same play, the caller (Bolton Marsh) returns home to confront his wife, believing that Bill has had an affair with his wife (Peggy Yates).  That confrontation, in minimal, but highly effective language is one of the most tense I've ever sat through – not for any violence or even any language, but for the sheer tension of it.

Even the much lighter "The Lover" isn't without its "crisis moments."  As we spend most of the play assuming that we are watching two lovers in a tryst behind the backs of their spouses, the tension that they might get caught is almost unbearable – I found myself laughing and staring at the door, sure that an angry husband or wife had found the pair out!  Ms. Penning and Mr. Reed had impeccable timing, both in rushes of dialogue and those long pauses.  And they both are quite adept at physical comedy.  All of that adds much to the feeling of "crisis."

• "Dialogue often used as aggression"; "apparent triviality"

The menacing phone calls, the cat-and-mouse give and take as husband confronts wife, and the arguments between Bill and Harry all have aggressive tone and language in "The Collection."  In all cases, the exact choice of words and the careful tone with which they were delivered added to the spine-tingling tension of the play.  In "The Lover," it is the often apparently trivial details – what is being cooked for dinner, the choice of flowers in a vase, even an unexpected visit from a handyman (again Bill Largess) that add to frenzied pace of the comedy.  And all, in retrospect, would have helped us to figure out sooner that the couple is in fact married and faces no threat from the outside.

All of those Pinteresque qualities so exquisitely performed (and directed) created a full evening of theatre that challenged its audience.  And the delight at figuring it out for yourself only added to the joy of the production.  Metha's design team also helped to create an environment that mirrored the plays, which ultimately settles in the brain and becomes, subliminally part of the experience.  Set and costume designer Elena Zlotescu created a setting that is as austere as Pinter's language – it was black, white and sparingly gray, including all of the furniture.  The furniture and props (designed by Dre Moore) were also minimal in terms of design – straight lines, little adornment.  The costumes also allowed for little color and only gave enough information to let the audience know the economic status of the characters and little else.  Similarly, the sound (designed by Ann Warren) and the lights (designed by Judith Daitsman) combined to not only add to the austerity of the setting, but the use of light, darkness and shadow, coupled with the  perfect volume, devoid of background noise sound effects create a sense of threatening foreboding. 

In the case of Two by Pinter, RepStage had a winner.  It also allowed audiences to attend a veritable primer on what it is to produce a Pinter play.  It should be interesting to see how Everyman Theatre interprets yet another work by one of the world's most challenging playwrights.

(Two by Pinter played at RepStage February 2 – 25, 2007.  Everyman Theatre's production of Betrayal began previews May 16, opens tonight, May 18, and runs through June 24^th.)

PHOTOS:  All photos by Stan Barouh.  TOP to BOTTOM: Nigel Reed and Marni Penning in The Lover; Bolton Marsh and Peggy Yates in The Collection; Bolton Marsh and Timothy Andres Pabon in The Collection; The Company of Betrayal.