During a speech to the Swedish Academy, Nobel Laureate playwright Harold Pinter said “dark,” was the word that inspired him to write Old Times. The word, and play, evoke a sense of “menace.”
And yet Pinter is a personal favorite of director Jennifer Rockwood, a lecturer of theater at the University of Toledo, who will be presenting a rendition of the play at the Mansion View Inn. “Pinter is a foreboding and menacing writer,” Rockwood says, “however he allows the audience to draw their own conclusions, while leaving tantalizing, concrete clues.”
Old Times centers around a woman, her husband, and a former college roommate. The characters reminisce about previous times, blurring the lines between past and present, as they delve deeper into their mutual connections. Words become knives in a back and forth game meant to assert dominance over a lover’s heart.
The play hinges on a poetic device called the “Pinter’s Pause,” which, according to Rockwood, “…is significant, because it’s full of content. When people are talking they’re attempting to cover up what they’re really thinking, because silence provokes discomfort.” That discomfort creates a dramatic resonance, as each line of dialogue takes on more emphatic and nuanced meaning, even in a dark comedy.
Michelle Sullivan, who plays Kate, spoke about Pinter’s use of writing purposefully vague dialogue. “In Old Times, the characters do nothing but talk about memories – their old times. But in this case, the talk is suspect. Who can we trust? Whose memory is real? What constitutes real? Old Times is a memory play and memory is a tricky thing in that it is essentially manipulative.”
Sullivan’s co-star, Jennifer Nagy-Lake, recognizes the same elements within the work. She said of Pinter, “He creates a lot of interpretation using fewer words.”
John Duvall, who plays Deeley, concurs with Sullivan’s assessment of Pinter’s foreboding use of subtle wordplay. “As an actor, you come to realize the villain is always more fun than the ingénue, and a character that holds mystery is much more challenging to play. I love Pinter because he leaves the menace, the sensuality, sometimes the reality of the characters onstage vague. There is so much underneath the words.”
Pinter would agree with these actors about his characters and their ambiguous dialogue. He said, while speaking to the Swedish Academy, “…characters resist the writer, they aren’t easy to live with, they’re impossible to define.” Old Times creates a fantastic balancing act between light and shade, where the ambiguity of the character’s intentions create dramatic tension, allowing the audience to ride a seesaw of sensation as they reveal themselves bit by bit. Old Times, performed by Actors Collaborative Toledo, will have viewers questioning their interpretations long after the curtain falls.
Saturday, February 22, 8pm. Special discounted students’
performance Friday, February 21, 8pm. $10. Mansion View Inn, 2035 Collingwood Blvd. Limited seating please call to reserve.
419-244-5676. facebook.com/ActorsCollaborativeToledoAct
