Boy, was I angry! More than four years ago in these pages I wrote an article entitled, "Ruminations on the End of the Season." In it I mourned the state of theatre criticism at the end of a season (1996-1997) in which the critics demolished all Broadway offerings, behaving in a way that made them look positively bent on self-destruction (biting the hand and all that).
A chance occurrence prompted me to revisit that article today (you should too): I happen to read Donald Lyons' New York Post review of a pair of Pinter short plays within an hour of reading Ben Brantley's New York Times review. The points of view were so diametrically opposed as to bring to mind the absurdity of the reviews of that long ago season. The contrast is almost comical -- although it's made less painful by the fact that these pieces are part of a limited (and presumably sold-out) run. It helps underline the fact that you can't rely on the critics to tell you what to see. To prove that point I thought I'd repeat the exercise I tried four years ago: to compare and contrast these two reviews.
The plays in question are Celebration and The Room, written and directed by Harold Pinter and produced as part of the Harold Pinter Festival portion of the Lincoln Center Festival. What makes this pairing interesting is that The Room was Pinter's first produced play, while Celebration was written in the last few years.
Brantley treats Pinter's work reverently, like a universally acknowledged work of art, the many beautiful facets of which are meant to be studied and revelled in -- although these two plays are by no means his Sistene Chapel ("Not that it ranks with a fully shaped masterwork like The Homecoming, the festival's ravishing highlight of last weekend."). Lyons', on the other hand, behaves almost irreverantly, acting the part of the debunker, the poo-poo-er. You can see these trends right from the start, with the titles:
Brantley: "Pinter's Silences, Richly Eloquent"
Lyons: "Pinter Pair Give No Reason for 'Celebration'"
About the contrast between the youthful writer of The Room and the mature dramatist of Celebration Brantley waxes:
Even in his mid-20's, it seems, Mr. Pinter had found his voice and rhythms; more remarkably, he has held on to them. Watching The Room... and Celebration... you feel no comparative wistfulness, on the one hand, or embarrassment, on the other. You don't begin to think, "Oh, what a shame that he's lost that young freshness and audacity." Or, "What a clumsy, earnest lad he once was." The man who wrote Celebration may have seen a bit more of the world than the fellow who wrote The Room, but he's still looking out at it through the same merciless eyeglasses.
While Lyons dismisses:
The Room is from 1957 and offers what now looks like a parody of early Pinter.
and
The other play, Celebration (1999), is Pinter in a satirical mode; it's not subtle but it's more enjoyable than The Room.
By the way, who should we turn to for accuracy? Lyons' "The other play, Celebration (1999)" or Brantley's "The double bill of Celebration (2000)"? (At least they agree on The Room as coming from 1957.)
Lyons sums up The Room thus: "Sinister and unsettling it's supposed to be; silly and endless it is." Brantley doesn't boil it down to that extent, but with phrases like "An air of familiarity also clings to the wintry world of The Room," "a classic Pinter dialogue that is really a monologue (or is it the opposite?)," "a woman who has retreated into a muffling insularity through terror of the unknown," and "There are visitors, of course, to make life seem even more perilous," you can see that he finds it anything but "silly and endless."
Of the Lindsay Duncan, who plays the central character of Rose in The Room, Brantley extols, "Hunched self-protectively in a ratty cardigan and head scarf... Ms. Duncan is riveting" while Lyons condemns "Duncan's impersonation of an old cockney is tiresome and patronizing."
And how different can their closings be?
Lyons: Pinter dishes up his usual hates and seasons the stew with misbehavior. It's occasionally funny, but unsurprising.
Brantley: Thank heavens we have Mr. Pinter, who continues to make walking through the darkness such an oddly enlightening experience.
Originally published at Suite101.com Theatre, 7/31/01
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