A fabulous production of Pinter's 'No Man's Land', performed by an impressive cast of masterful actors. The first to the last lines of the play were captivating, time flew during this wonderful performance.
Winner of 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature, Pinter is an iconic writer, his style is a popular choice for actors to study and imitate. This production didn't have any hints of stale imitation about it, each of the actors gave resonating performances, their characters and the relationships between them were palpable and had us the audience on the edge of our seats.
The play opens with Spooner (Nicholas Gasson) and Hirst (Moray Treadwell) making their way drunkenly into Hirst's study, more drinks are had and the relationship between the two seemingly begins to form with Spooner serving Hirst drinks and assuring his host of his experiences and value, until Hirst makes a desperate exit on his hands and knees to recover from his excessive drinking. Then Briggs (Graham O'Mara) and Foster (Joel Macey) arrive, visibly shaken that another has appeared with intentions of usurping their position as Hirst's companions, they lock him in the study until morning and the battle of value and position continues.
The cast of four are a strong force of professional actors with impressive television and theatre credits to their names. As an ensemble the energy and connectivity between them is visible as they give focus to one another and without words simply presence and eye contact, give to the audience so much to read about their attitudes and intentions for one another. The stand out performance came from Joel Macey, his ability to change from states of vulnerability to preening under Hirst's attention were wildly entertaining, his characterisation of Foster was meticulous and deserving of much praise.
In this play the drama unfurls in a single location, acts one and two are both set in Hirst's study, the only change that occurs is the lighting through the window, which is cut out when Briggs pulls the curtains closed, focussing again all our attention on the drama in the room. Bek Palmer's set is so wonderfully effective at pulling the audience's focus to the centre of this drama. The study made up of a curved back drop of book cases, fireplace, window and door, encircles the actors giving them no space to hide from one another and forces them to respond to one another's spacing in the room.
Director Michael Cabot is a director with a wisdom for Pinter, the poetic delivery of the text and actors enabled him to be creative with their interpretation of the rhythm of the piece all in all made for a wonderfully entertaining performance that I would recommend to those interested in displays of masterful theatre and excellent storytelling.
My only criticism would be about the attitude of the audience, audible talking and rustling of sweet wrappers during a tense and word heavy production such as this was distracting for other members of the audience. At one point a mobile rang loudly for over a minute, Malteasers were spilt and rolled from the back of the auditorium, during my time as a primary school teacher I would have expected better respect for a performance from children.
Reviewer - Kerry Ely
on - 6/9/19
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