Hood Today

Hood College Theatre's performance of Harold Pinter's "Old Times" delved courageously into the murky confines of the human mind. As an absurdist play written by Harold Pinter, British playwright and Nobel Laureate, "Old Times" eschewed a linear plotline for a more subjective exploration of the concepts of memory and reality. The performance was directed by Joe Brady, and is his third production as theatre director at Hood.

The cast was comprised of a mere three characters: Deeley and Kate, a married couple played by John Boasi and Devin Gaither; and Anna, an old friend of Kate's, who is played by Danielle McFall. The trio performed beautifully. The actor and actresses breathed life into a script made difficult by its interpretive nature.

The set was monochromatic, using tones of blue, grey and white. The stage was set up in a "thrust proscenium" style, which maintained the intimacy afforded productions in Avalon Theatre while bringing a more traditional feel to the set. The stage was tiered, and formed a small arch around the squared body of the stage. A lit window framed with sheer curtains framed the back of the stage. This creation of defined foreground and background helped the cast portray distance between characters and, perhaps more importantly, helped focus the gaze of the audience.

Walking into the Avalon Performing Arts Theatre was akin to walking into a dream. Smoke hung gracefully in the air, swirling lazily in front of the stage lights and creating an ethereal atmosphere. Old music was playing as the audience funneled into their seats, adding to the nostalgic tone. "Old Times" had a very introspective feel; even when the characters were talking with each other they each seemed distant and caught up in their own worlds. Little touches in rhetoric and facial expression helped accentuate the separation between each of the characters. Even expressions of intimacy were tempered with a seemingly inescapable solitude.

These contrasting elements of intimacy and distance were explored through the dialogue between the characters as Anna's visit unravels the couple's precarious contentment. Her visit brings to light questions about their collective past, present and future. Leaving the audience wondering not just what is real, but who.

Pinter's aim here is to portray to his audience the fallibility, not only of memory, but of reality and of self. Can we ever really know another person, or even ourselves? The cast portrayed these questions beautifully. Their dialogue seemed to skate along the surface, hinting at the depth hidden below what was actually said, but never explicitly stating it.

Small details in the rhetoric of dialogue, and the way the characters moved also connoted to the audience the feeling of distance. Kate spoke the least, and always gave the impression that she was hiding a vast sea of knowledge behind her demure poise. Despite her ambiguity and apathy, Kate seemed to be the only undeniably real character.

Anna and Deeley, although far more lively than Kate, seemed to exist purely in Kate's memory. When they spoke it was to speak of the past, a past which centered around their respective relationships with Kate. In contrast, Kate exists outside of her relationships with them. She is wrapped up in sensation. Kate often breaks her companions' nostalgic monologues to bring attention back to the concrete world - the feel of marble floors on bare feet and the softness of the ocean. She seems introspective, but also most appreciative of the tangibility of the world around her. She doesn't remember - she is. This sets her apart from the other two.

I saw both Anna and Deeley as alternate personalities of Kate, each struggling throughout the play for dominance both over each other and over Kate. Ultimately, Kate disowns both of them in the final scene, at least for the time being. This final act of severance, to me, screamed that she was imagining both of them. They were part of a dream; a memory and the reason she could not truly interact with them was that they were not real at all.

The beauty of absurdist literature is that there is never only one way to read it. True to its genre, "Old Times" does not have one interpretation, moral, or message. The aim was not to send the audience away satisfied, but to call attention to the ineffable nature of human experience. The aim was to evoke a question in the heart of every audience member regarding their own subjective reality. Hood's Theatre Department stayed true to this aim, performing a difficult piece with a difficult message with incredible ease.

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