Moonlight, Donmar Warehouse

Moonlight, Donmar Warehouse | reviews, news & interviews

Moonlight, Donmar Warehouse

Play revived from 1993 doesn't mean Pinter's always great

by James WoodallWednesday, 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.

The first British revival of Moonlight since 1993 is hugely watchable

Buy

Explore topics

Share this article

The future of Arts Journalism

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

more Theatre

Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Theatre review - comic energy dissipates in too large a space Too much thinking; not enough laughing

You Me Bum Bum Train, secret location review - a joyful multiverse of anarchic creativity This latest incarnation of the show is a wild, spinning ride through different forms of reality

The Tempest, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane review - Sigourney Weaver's impassive Prospero inhabits an atmospheric, desolate world Magic is minimised in Jamie Lloyd's pared-back version

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Donmar Warehouse review - a blazingly original musical flashes into the West End War and Peace - but not as you know it

The Invention of Love, Hampstead Theatre review - beautiful wit, awkward staging Tom Stoppard’s evocation of Victorian golden age Oxford stars Simon Russell Beale

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, New Adventures, Sadler's Wells review - 30 years on, as bold and brilliant as ever A masterly reinvention has become a classic itself

The Little Foxes, Young Vic review - timeshifted production blurs the play's focus Lillian Hellman’s family feud set in 1900 Alabama doesn’t survive a confused updating