Pinter’s ‘No Man’s Land’ a hellish dream

PINTERLAND: (left to right) Sir Partick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, Billy Crudup, Shuler Henlsey. Photo: Joan Marcus

NO MAN’S LAND
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Sean Mathias
Cort Theatre
138 West 48th Street
(212) 239-6200; http://www.twoplaysinrep.com/

By David NouNou

To enter into Pinterland, one has to leave the comforts of the real world as one knows it, and be ready to enter another world that only makes sense in the mind of Harold Pinter. It’s a no man’s land, a netherworld that exists between reality and reminiscences. Nothing much happens, but somehow the characters’ lives do change. Through the volley of words, the characters ever so slowly morph into someone else. One’s attention can’t waiver even for an instant. Although all the words are common, everyday ones, we never know which set of words is going to trigger off the chain of events.

Set in Hampstead, a part of North London, Hirst (Patrick Stewart), an alcoholic, upper-class intellectual, meets Spooner (Ian McKellen), a down-on–his-luck poet who Hirst meets at a pub one evening and invites him over to his posh home. It appears that they may have met at Oxford; they are both in their sixties and reminisce about shared acquaintances and relationships. In this home also live Foster (Billy Crudup), an amiable “secretary”; and the thuggish Briggs (Shuler Hensley), a manservant. For Hirst, Foster and Briggs live in a comfortable, unchallenged world.  On this evening, Spooner seems to be the interloper who could change this comfy existence.

Let’s face it, for most Americans, Pinter is a tough pill to swallow. However, when you are in the presence of theatre magicians the likes of Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, it’s theatrical heaven. The chemistry between these two actors is palpable. These two men are such perfectionists; they can finish each other’s sentences. Not to take anything away from Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley, for they are formidable actors in their own right, but the stage belongs to McKellen and Stewart. Mr. Crudup and Mr. Hensley are better served in the alternating twin rep in Waiting For Godot. Their talents are fully realized there.

Sean Mathais, the director, has managed to distill the humor and pathos from both plays. For Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot and Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land seem like a perfect combination to be done in repertory. They both require four actors and they complement each other; they both deal with the possibility of reality and the imaginary. Time is not important and reminiscences could be self delusion. While in Godot it feels like one is repeating the same day in purgatory, in No Man’s Land it feels like spending a night and day in a hellish dream that keeps pulling us into its vortex.

CHEERS: Sir Patrick Stewart toasts Sir Ian McKellen in ‘No Man’s Land.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published December 6, 2013
Reviewed at  press performance on December 4, 2013