An hour of sheer pleasure at the National Theatre watching Simon Russell Beale and Clare Higgins in Harold Pinter's early play, originally written for radio. A husband and wife banter over breakfast about the garden plants. A wasp gets stuck in the marmalade and is brutally disposed of. There's a strange match-seller standing by the back gate. When he's invited into the house he doesn't say a word but in his presence the husband Edward gradually seems to disintegrate. The wife Flora takes a shine to the match-seller and goes off with him. It's all beautifully acted but I tend to agree with those who say it loses more than it gains from the transfer to the stage. Seeing the masked and rather sinister match-seller (more of a caped batman than a scruffy old man in Iqbal Khan's production) destroys the ability to imagine him, which is the essence of this play. There's an excellent BBC radio recording of this play from 2000 with Pinter himself playing Edward.
I'm all in favour of one-acters as a stepping stone for playwrights to the full length play. If you can't write a one-act play you probably can't write anything longer. But it's hard to find a home for one-act plays these days, partly because lunchtime theatre is almost non-existent in London, except at the King's Head in Islington and one or two other venues. Pinter is one of the few authors who will attract an audience for a evening double-bill of short plays. There are five more performances of this play in late September at the National in a double bill with Landscape, written in 1967.
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