Pause for thought: A passion for Pinter shines through in this fine homage
There has been a lot of buzz about this show since it was first announced, due to the fact that not only does it feature a Hollywood star in Julian Sands (the first to tread the boards at the Fringe in a while) but is directed by one too, in the shape of John Malkovich who was seen handing out flyers on the Royal Mile last week.
Whether this tribute to Pinter, a sell out on the day I attended, would have attracted such attention without these marquee names behind it is open to debate.
Still it’s good to see one of Britains’s greatest playwrights draw such a crowd, even if some have come along just out of star struck curiosity.
Sands first came to know Pinter (the man , not the work which he’d studied at O level and performed at drama school) when Pinter invited him to stand in for him at a recital of his poetry he was too ill to perform.
And there’s a touching reverent affection, bordering on obsequious fandom about his performance as he reads from Pinter’s poetry and shares anecdotes about the playwright, in attempt to deliver a rounded portrait of a man whose reputation as a force-of-nature, bull-in-a-china shop was well deserved. But as Sands shows wasn’t all there was to the man.
Reading Pinter’s work aloud on stage, as well as extracts from his wife Antonia Fraser’s memoir- and sharing his own thoughts on the playwright’s work, I couldn’t help but think Sands performance (boldly delivered with real passion and no small amount of humour as it is) belongs at the Book festival rather than as part of the Fringe theatre programme, where sadly I can only find one Pinter play (The Dumb Waiter) being performed, though I may be wrong..
Still it’s an enjoyable, uplifting, hour long voyage round Pinter’s life and times. One that covers all the major bases-Pinter’s thoughts on the famous Pinter pause; the playwrights unswerving political activism, especially against the Iraq wars; his love affair with Antonia Fraser; and of course the poetry which forms the cornerstone of the show..
I’d always considered Pinter’s verse bombastic and dull, but Sands brings it wonderfully brings to life here, in particular the beautiful It Was Here, which he argues is one of the greatest English love poems ever written, and may well have a case.
Elsewhere there’s a flint edged stoicism about Pinter’s approach to death (he died from cancer on Christmas Eve 2008 aged 78), and much good humour in the retelling of the anecdote about the short poem about the cricketer Len Hutton he sent to fellow playwright Simon Gray.
Short as a Pinter pause it read: ”I saw Len Hutton in his prime. Another time, another time.” some time later when he had heard nothing back he called Gray up for his opinion and was told he hadn’t had time to finish reading it yet.
- Julian Sands in a Celebration of Harold Pinter is until August 21 at Pleasance One.
