Pepperdine students perform a series of five plays that create a picture of the contemporary British playwright Harold Pinter and his philosophies about life.
By Holli LeMarr-Wyett
Assistant A&E Editor
Ambiguity. Menace. Danger. Sensuality.
Throw these four ingredients into a production, add 14 cast members, British and Cockney accents and the Lindhurst Theatre and the end result is “Pinter Pieces,” Pepperdine’s first production of plays by English playwright Harold Pinter.
“We felt that we should expose our students and the audience to the work of one of the world’s contemporary leading playwrights,” Director George Neilson said.
Pinter is known around the world for his simple — yet confusing — storylines that often leave the audience wondering what to think at all.
“The quintessence of Pinter’s dramaturgy is that a play does not mean anything, it simply is,” Neilson said in his director’s note. “And what it is, is a baffling, unresolved and irresolvable human situation.”
Pinter has said that he cannot and will not describe any of his works. He believes his only obligation is to the text and it is the burden of audience members to derive their own meaning from what is presented.
“To supply an explicit moral tag to an evolving and compulsive dramatic image seems to me facile, impertinent and dishonest,” Pinter said in a 1970 conference at the University of Hamburg.
Five of Pinter’s plays will be performed in the Lindhurst Theatre beginning with his first 1957 play “The Room” and ending with a more recent 1991 play, “Party Time” in order to show the evolution of his writing, Neilson said.
“The Room” is a 35-minute play set in a large house in London. A woman named Rose sits alone in a room and several people come and talk to her.
“I play Mr. Kidd, Rose’s elderly landlord, and I have something important to tell her,” sophomore Jason Murphy said. “It’s a really ambiguous show and I guess that’s kind of the purpose to it. You are supposed to apply your own meaning to it.”
The next performance, “That’s All,” is a three-minute skit consisting of two women talking in a kitchen in London.
“The play is basically one lady talking a bunch of nonsense,” said senior Athena Delaney, who plays Woman B in this performance. “Pinter is awkward because it’s more about the mood, the language and the pauses. It’s about getting the audience to feel this menace and keep thinking about the ideas raised when they walk away.”
“The Dumb Waiter” is a 39-minute story of two hit men in the basement of a café waiting for their victim to arrive.
“Through a series of uncanny events, the predators become prey,” said senior T.J. Volgare, who plays Gus.
Next, a three-minute monologue, “Special Offer,” shows a woman standing by a water cooler retelling her experience of an old woman trying to sell her a man.
“It is just a quirky, squirrelly little piece,” sophomore Hollie Tucker said of her monologue. “It is comic relief and doesn’t really have much meaning.”
Following the intermission is the final 40-minute play, “Party Time,” that includes the entire cast. “Party Time” depicts a group of upper class citizens at a party discussing trivial aspects of their lives while oblivious to the helicopters and havoc occurring outside of the house.
“It kind of expresses Pinter’s views on the ignorance of the elite and how they turn a blind eye to what is going on in the world,” Murphy said. “He makes political statements, but it is still up to you to decide what those political statements are.”
There have been many challenges for the cast due to the obscure and open-ended nature of Pinter’s works.
“It is hard to grasp Pinter and understand what he wants,” Tucker said. “You can play any character how you want, so choosing what you want to do with each scene is kind of tricky.”
Delaney agrees.
“It is harder to play the characters because they are not conventional,” she said.
However, along with these challenges comes much learning.
“The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is the necessity to surrender to the text, play the moment and not the significance,” Volgare said. “Playing something absurd like it is the most natural thing that has ever happened to me is a challenge.”
Many of the actors auditioned for these plays simply for the experience of performing “Pinteresque” plays. As vague as his storylines may appear, each actor was given the opportunity to delve into new material and derive his or her own meanings from the experience.
“I love Pinter because he is honest and because he doesn’t write to be revered,” Volgare said. “He writes to satisfy something inherent, something of his own appetite. He doesn’t neglect those really subtle moments that art finds convenient to ignore.”
Pinter Pieces will be playing in the Lindhurst Theatre Oct. 8-11 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 12 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Admission is $15 for the public, $12 for faculty and staff and $6 for students. Each performance is approximately two hours and no late seating will be allowed.
October 03, 2002