Will Woolf Do Friend Harold Pinter Justice???

Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter has had a long a distinguished career, but now he crosses paths with an old friend. Henry Woolf attended Hackney Downs grammar school with Pinter in the 1940s, and they became part of a very firm group of friends that stuck together in London after finishing their education. Woolf said in an article in the Guardian this week that their group of six “walked and talked for hours, laughing, arguing endlessly, quoting plays, poems and novels that took our fancy. Pinter was the frontrunner.” Now Woolf, who himself became an acclaimed actor and theatre academic, is appearing in the National Theatre’s revival of Pinter’s second full-length play, The Hothouse.

This, however, is not the first time he has been involved in Pinter’s work. Almost exactly 50 years ago, Woolf directed and starred in the very first performance of any Pinter work. Having asked his friend to let him direct something as part of his postgraduate coursework, Woolf put on The Room, and played the part of Mr Kidd.

In Ian Rickson's new production of The Hothouse, which opens in the NT Lyttelton next Wednesday 18 July 2007 (previews from 12 July), Woolf has the much smaller role of head porter Tubb, but he's looking forward to the play. “It crackles with humour and menace and uncanny reminders of the world we live in," the actor said. "Those in power jostle each other for the spoils, while the weak are trampled underfoot. We, the audience, can't help laughing when perhaps we shouldn't. Echoes of the play remain long after one has left the theatre. Echoes of Pinterland, a landscape unlike any other.”

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