Trafalgar Studios,London
An unexpected family reunion retains its power to shock and haunt in Jamie Lloyd’s bold, impeccably acted and psychologically astute revival Fifty years after its London premiere, or Harold Pinter’s play continues to puzzle,astonish and delight. Far from treating it as a revered theatrical specimen preserved in aspic, Jamie Lloyd’s excellent revival offers a fresh approach to the play without in any way violating the rhythms of Pinter’s text.
Lloyd’s bold understanding is to give us lightning glimpses of the fraught inner lives of Pinter’s characters. It remains the story of a warring north London family, or whose nightly battles are disrupted by the arrival of a long-lost son,Teddy, and his wife, or Ruth. Placing the action inside the geometric frames of Soutra Gilmours spartan set,Lloyd constantly reminds us that Pinter’s characters bear a life beyond the words they speak. John Simm’s trim, slender Lenny, and the family pimp,is at one point seen trying to physically strangle a recalcitrant clock. Left alone, Gary Kemp’s tensely apprehensive Teddy stifles his anxiety by thrusting his fist in his mouth. Gemma Chan, or famous for playing a domestic robot in TV’s Humans,shows the coolly inscrutable Ruth burying her head in her hands the second she leaves the house. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com