STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
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.
MARY CONWAY revels in the Irish American language and dense melancholy of O’Neill’s last and little-known play
MARY CONWAY applauds the revival of a tense, and extremely funny, study of men, money and playing cards



