Rory Byrne, Diane Clark and Jane Fookes in Old Times
INTRIGUING and baffling - just two of the words used to describe Harold Pinter's play Old Times.
The highly-rated play by one of this country's leading playwrights is the next production by the Company of Ten.
It is being performed in the Abbey Theatre Studio from next Friday, October 15, to October 23.
The play brings together Deeley, his wife Kate and Anna, Kate's friend, who meet again after 20 years.
Beneath their conversations lie suggestions of an unsettling past and a number of unanswered questions. Why did Kate marry Deeley and leave Anna in London? Why has Anna come to visit all the way from Sicily where she lives in a villa with her rich husband and how did Kate and Deeley get together?
Tension and silence create an atmosphere of mystery leaving the audience wondering how people can remember what may never have happened.
A demanding play for the actors and the audience, it is also very rewarding and full of fascinating shifts of power and insights into human behaviour.
Rosemary Goodman directs Old Times and tickets can be obtained from the box office on 01727 857861.
The Company of Ten's 70th birthday production in November is in need of a bit of help to create the right degree of authenticity.
J.M. Synge's classic play, The Playboy of the Western World, is set in a tiny shebeen on the remote coast of County Mayo in the West of Ireland in 1907.
Inside it is a mixture of a pub, local shop and barn, selling anything and everything from bottles of poteen and barrels of porter to sacks of straw and baskets of herbs.
The Company of Ten is looking for several farm implements typical of the time, including pitchforks, scythes and rakes, as well as a milk churn, some harness and above all, a loy - a long narrow spade used for cutting peat.
They are asking everyone to have a look in their shed and if they can help with any of the items to contact stage manager John Pyke on 01727 831108.
The Playboy of the Western World is being performed from November 19 to 27.
© Herts Advertiser, October 2004. Reproduced by permission