Moonlight, Donmar Warehouse | reviews, news & interviews
Moonlight, Donmar Warehouse
Moonlight, Donmar Warehouse
Play revived from 1993 doesn't mean Pinter's always great
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Trying but mainly failing to connect: David Bradley and Deborah Findlay in 'Moonlight'Johan Persson
One wants to be antagonised by Harold Pinter. In his substantial early dramas (The Homecoming, The Caretaker, The Birthday Party), aggression and menace coil through the texts like rattlesnakes. He was, then, revolutionary. Maybe it's glib - critical shorthand - to suggest that there were, thereafter, two to three decades of falling away; but some of us might feel that much of his later work either became hijacked by his belligerent, unnuanced politics or, simply and contrastingly, softened.
One wants to be antagonised by Harold Pinter. In his substantial early dramas (The Homecoming, The Caretaker, The Birthday Party), aggression and menace coil through the texts like rattlesnakes. He was, then, revolutionary. Maybe it's glib - critical shorthand - to suggest that there were, thereafter, two to three decades of falling away; but some of us might feel that much of his later work either became hijacked by his belligerent, unnuanced politics or, simply and contrastingly, softened.
The first British revival of Moonlight since 1993 is hugely watchable
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