The first Harold Pinter play I ever read was when I was in high school. It was The Birthday Party. As an acting student, I was immediately drawn to Pinter’s writing style. For me, Pinter’s plays are dark, yet shed light on the truth lurking behind relationships. His plays are also enlightening, capturing elements of history, through silence, controlled dialogue and tension.
Over the next decade, I would immerse myself in his work including The Caretaker, Betrayal and The Homecoming. When I was living in London, right down the road from Hackney, the suburb where Pinter himself grew up, Moonlight with Ralph Fiennes was playing at the Almeida Theater right down the road from my flat. I jumped at the chance to catch a Pinter premiere and relished this play about the obscure nature of life and death (with Salmon Rushdie sitting in the seat next to me, stepping on his toes with my platform shoes on the way to the loo! Oh, what memories.)
As a member of the Atlantic Theater, I was particularly happy to find out that they were bringing a Pinter play to the stage this season with two one acts The Collection & A Kind of Alaska: Two Plays By Harold Pinter. Pinter’s plays haven’t been around the NYC stages lately, and I was thrilled to see a return. Plus, I had never seen these two shorts. My theater companion had not been all that pleased with the recent Atlantic performances, so we were curious how this would play out. A co-production with Classic Stages, it gave us an opportunity to explore another theater. I had seen several shows there before and was very impressed. It’s a real actor’s theater.
The Collection is about a man, James, played by Darren Pettie from my favorite show, “Mad Men,” who is eerily making mysterious calls to a stranger, Bill, played by Matt McGrath. We soon find out that he is accusing him of having an affair with his wife, Stell, played by Rebecca Henderson. Bill lives with Harry, played by Larry Bryggman, who seems to be his caretaker, not his lover. When Darren and Bill become friends, it is a puzzle to everyone in the play, and as an audience member, it all felt very sinister and unsettling. Why would they be friends? I was sure that the play would end very, very badly.
But when Bill gets involved, the situation seems to resolve itself yet leaves many unanswered questions. Did anything actually happen between Bill and Rebecca? I believed that Bill was gay and that he would get off with James, but that didn’t happen. Pinter really keeps a tight grip on the situation in this play. Friction lurks beneath the surface. The set, split between the two homes of James and Bill, is symmetrical and worked perfectly. The ending is both gripping and satisfying.
A Kind of Alaska was equally chilling. Inspired by Oliver Sack’s nonfiction book Awakenings, about the victims of encephalitis lethargic who were brought back to life 50 years later in the early 1900s, Pinter’s short work explores the moments directly after a woman, Deborah. played by Lisa Emery, wakes up in a strange bed in a hospital in the presence of her doctor, played by Larry Bryggman. She fell asleep when she was 16, and only remembers life as a young girl. She asks for her mommy, her sister and seems to have no idea how old she really is. When her sister, Pauline, played by Rebecca Henderson, comes to visit, she is shocked at how “fat” and old she looks. Clearly, the illness has made her detached from reality and she is genuinely scared about missing out on so much of her life and where the roads will lead her now. Emery blew my theater companion and I away with her acting. She seemed genuinely freaked out and out of control, due to her condition which apparently led many to a spiral downward to insanity.
Pinter died in late 2008. I think he would have been proud of this production of two of his works. It looks like the show is over, but check out the future offerings of both the Atlantic Theater and Classic Stage Company, two theaters I take personal delight in. I already have my tickets to Three Sisters by Chekhov at Classic Stage and The New York Idea at the Atlantic, their next two individual productions.
To end the review, I have to mention my star sighting that took place this particular night: John Slattery from my very favorite show, Mad Men. I’ve actually seen him in several plays, including a Pinter play, Betrayal, several years ago, with Juliette Binoche, and also Rabbit Hole. He was lovely, hanging out in the lobby, just like your average Joe. The Classic Stage Company is truly an actor’s theater and a real treat to be at on Friday night for this suburban mom.
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