Old Times by Harold Pinter: Pondering Recollections Of What Was Or Isn’t @ Space Theatre – Review

Space Theatre, Wed 6 Apr. Reviews of Harold Pinter’s Old Times range from “one of the greatest plays of the last 100 years” to “a pretentious bore”. For me this production at the Space Theatre lands unsurprisingly somewhere in the middle! It’s quite a bit more upbeat than much of Pinter’s earlier work. The apparently trivial dialogue and pregnant pauses are missing from this production. It skips along at quite a pace. The plot is straightforward enough. A married couple, Deeley and Kate, host a visit from Anna, an old friend of Kate’s who she hasn’t seen for 20 years, and they reminisce about old times. Taken on face value it’s an entertaining enough yarn played out with enthusiasm and equally strong performances from the three characters. It turns out it seems that Deeley has also met Anna before he married Kate, and in a delicately played ménage à trois all three characters are obviously attracted to each other and spend much time skirting the fact. The occasionally vivacious Kate (Charlotte Rose) seems the odd one out as her husband and old friend vie for her affection, and she appears to retreat to a passive and coy near-invisibility. Anna (Rachael Wegener) is annoyed at having to share her evening with the crass lower class Londoner her old friend has chosen as her husband (Marc Clement). He chooses not to do the right thing and let old friends chat about their past. Instead he probes the basis of their relationship like a jealous husband, while also oddly bragging about flirting with prostitutes in his work travels. By play’s end, however, the tables have strangely turned. Life is full of coincidences and it is possible that Anna and Deeley’s remarkably similar recollections of their past were simply that, but it is highly improbable. So what was Pinter really trying to convey here? Pinter himself would not be drawn on the subject, so we’re never going to know the truth. In any event we are left with an intriguing and entertaining play that is over all too quickly. Michael Coghlan Old Times by Harold Pinter continues at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, at various times, until Sat 9 Apr. Book at BASS on 131 246 and bass.net.au. Click HERE to purchase your tickets. Click HERE to read The Clothesline's interview with Director Tony Knight.