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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
The gift that keeps on giving
There are yet more delights in the ongoing season of Harold Pinter plays in London, says MARY CONWAY
Alienated: Luke Thallon and Jane Horrocks in Pinter Five [Marc Brenner]

Pinter Five and Pinter Six
Harold Pinter Theatre, London

THE JAMIE LLOYD Company’s parade of Pinter short plays and monologues, a tribute to the writer who died 10 years ago, goes from strength to strength.

Pinter Five, directed by Patrick Marber, begins with The Room, the playwright’s first-ever work from 1957. With its miserable gas fire, filthy windows, drab functionality, fearful anonymity and menace, it’s disturbingly evocative of the period.

The play’s tension never falters as Rose (Jane Horrocks) and her husband (Rupert Graves) fail to communicate — she through a torrent of continuous gabble, he through a persistent and threatening silence.

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