Two By Pinter: The Lover & The Collection
The thing about choosing to engage a complex playwright like Harold Pinter, a London native of Jewish descent who grew up in the midst of World War II’s chaos and anti-Semitism, is that there are a number of decisions to be made before the curtain goes up. His work is deliberately intense, and at times, willfully obtuse. Bombarded with so many opposing events and sensations, Pinter’s turbulent adolescence shows itself in his work. Nothing is easy. Little will be laid out for viewers in stark clarity. Room for open interpretation is precisely the point, and that room is not only provided to a viewing audience. The responsibility of construal also belongs to the company that assumes the challenge of staging his works.
The Director who mans the helm of any Pinter production bears the responsibility of making some choices as to how the tense, but thick emotional exchanges should look and feel. And here is where I believe Founder/Artistic Director Emeritus Joyce Piven, who takes the wheel for Piven Theatre Workshop’s 2009-2010 season opening production of Two by Pinter: the Lover and The Collection, ultimately fails. Full of inorganic pauses, sputtering and at times, unintentional confusion, the final product does not mirror the willful, ironic ambiguity of Pinter’s dialogue. Instead, the end result leaves one with the impression of the ambitious undertakings of a company in over its head.
Bridged by a 15 minute intermission, the two one act plays, The Lover and The Collection both center around the lives of white, upper middle class urban Londoners, people with plenty of money and little responsibility who seem to have nothing better to do than rip each other’s hearts out. That in and of itself is a bitter statement of the "real" lives of the powerful, but nothing in Piven’s direction suggests a willingness to focus on that indictment. Instead, the decision appears to have been made to hone in on the visceral, physical reactions of the characters to various lies and betrayals. It is certainly true that all of the principal performers appeared tired and sweaty at their curtain call. The problem comes in when the audience is also worn out from unsuccessful attempts to understand the vision of the production.
In The Lover, a married couple with an "understanding" progressively raise the stakes in daring each other to be the most careless about their open relationship. Sarah has a regular lover who comes to the home she shares with Richard on assorted afternoons, while her husband avails himself of the routine services of a prostitute. Dana Black, as Sarah, certainly draws you in with her deep, tantalizing, Kathleen Turneresque alto. Her overt sexiness, utilized to full effect through the use of screens and spotlighting that marry Sarah’s costume changes with seduction, can be attributed to the Scenic Design of Aaron Menninga. Watching Black undulate behind those screens, one can almost comprehend the increasing frenzy of the cuckolded Richard, played by Lawrence Grimm.
I say "almost" because although the actors do their best to help you get there, Richard and Sarah’s final altercation is inexplicable. For the bulk of the one act, Richard has conveyed a blasé attitude so well that his emotional reversal is jarring without the benefit of supporting evidence. Rather than feeling like a natural turn of the emotional mind, the pacing of the performance instead leaves one with the impression that something has accidentally been left out.
The second selection, The Collection, is even more disorganized, although it must be said that John Francisco, making his Piven debut in the character of Bill, shows tremendous promise. His ease, comfort and command of the material, the ability to make the sexually and morally unquantifiable Bill seem purposefully dodgy, stands in contrast to some of the other actors apparent disorientation inside the dialogue. There are more chess pieces on the board this time as the lives of gay (I think?) fashion designer Bill, and his partner Harry collide head on with newlyweds Stella and James. Did Bill and Stella have an affair in Leeds while away on business or didn’t they? And more importantly, should anyone care or expect anything less?
I wish I could say the exploration of these questions through the artistic vision of the Piven Theatre Workshop were more engaging, but disappointingly, that is not the case. I had a small foreshadowing of the frustration awaiting me when another critic, seated to my right, complained ad nauseum before, during and after the show, about the distracting and harsh lighting. That complaint serves well as a metaphor the production as a whole. It is so close to being an interesting examination of the conditions of human love, but it falls just short, a victim of trying to pack too many layers into works that would be best aided with a little less.
Two By Pinter: the Lover and The Collection should be considered suitable for mature audiences only, due to the high incidence of sexual themes and coarse language.
Two by Pinter: The Lover and the Collection runs through November 15, 2009 at Piven Theatre Workshop, 927 Noyes Street Evanston.
Performance schedule:: Thursday - Saturday at 7:30pm; Sunday at 2:30pm. Info phone: 847-866-8049. For more information visit the Piven Theatre Workshop Web site.
