No Man's LandDuke of York's Theatre, West End, Greater London
Synopsis
Hirst, a respected and wealthy poet, comes across Spooner, a fellow poet who has fallen on hard times, in a chance meeting at Jack Straw's Castle, his local public house. They retire to Hirst's Hampstead home to continue their drinking and conversation. Later, two younger men, Foster and Briggs, arrive claiming to be Hirst's guardians. Nothing, however, is as it seems. First performed in 1975, No Man's Land is one of [Harold Pinter's most darkly comic, savagely disturbing - and seldom seen - plays. The tenuous nature of memory, and the primal, aggressive nature of men struggling to maintain their status in an unrelenting world are forged together in this modern classics.
Dates: 27 September 2008 to 03 January 2009 Opens 07 October 2008. Mon-Sat 19:30. Sat Mat 14:30. Tue Mat Oct 21,28, Nov 18, Dec 2,23,30. Christmas/New Year Dec 22,23,26,27,29,30,31, Jan09 1,2,3 at 19:30. Dec 2327,30, Jan09 3 Mats 14:30 Prices: £15.00 to £47.50 Cast & Creative Team
Author : Harold Pinter
Producer : Sonia Friedman Productions
Producer : Michael Colgan
Company : The Gate Dublin
Director : Rupert Goold
Design : Giles Cadle
Lighting : Neil Austin
Sound : Adam Cork
Performer : David Walliams (Foster)
Performer : Michael Gambon (Hirst)
Performer : David Bradley (Spooner)
Performer : Nick Dunning (Briggs)
 | | Michael Gambon & David Bradley |
Date: 8 October 2008 Rupert Goold’s production of Harold Pinter’s No Man's Land opened in the West End last night (7 October 2008, previews from 27 September) to an audience including the playwright himself as well as a plethora of celebrity guests (See Also Today’s 1st Night Photos and WOS TV). The four-hander stars veteran thespians Michael Gambon, David Bradley, Nick Dunning and, making his stage acting debut, Little Britain star David Walliams. Hirst (Gambon), a wealthy Hampstead aesthete meets a shabby and penniless poet, Spooner (Bradley), and invites him home for a late-night session of drinking and games, overseen by his henchmen, Briggs (Dunning) and Foster (Walliams). No Man's Land premiered in 1975 at the National Theatre where the cast included John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. Its major London revivals since have included a 1992 Almeida production, which starred Pinter and transferred to the West End, and a 2001 production, directed by Pinter and starring Corin Redgrave and John Wood, back at the NT. The “great Gambon” stole many of the plaudits in today’s newspapers, his “magnificent” and “compelling” portrayal of Hirst matched only by the “equally superb” work of David Bradley as Spooner. David Walliams didn’t fair quite so well, with some labelling him “technically stiff” and slightly “overwhelmed” by his first straight stage role. Overall, though, Rupert ‘midas-touch’ Goold appears to have done it again – with raves for his “metaphysical” take on No Man's Land following the recent ebullient reception of his other current West End offering, Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (four stars) – “Rupert Goold’s production … seems more than ever like a reminiscent re-run of Waiting for Godot, Hirst and Spooner trapped in their roles, and memories, in a cold limbo which is forever icy and forever silent … Always the great electrifying moment, Gambon bursts forth in daylight in a pin-striped suit to greet his old friend and evoke pre-War golden days in Oxford and their shared enthusiasm for the same woman … Bradley is equally superb as Spooner, cawing and craven, picking at his language, all revealed as he releases his tattered invitation to the poetry reading in Chalk Farm … Dunning’s Briggs is a superbly malevolent jumped-up waiter, while Walliams’ Foster, technically stiff and insufficiently emphatic with his trailing phrases, nonetheless conveys his seedy past with a looming sneeriness.” Michael Billington in the Guardian (four stars) – “Gambon's magnificent Hirst seems to exist in two dimensions at once, and the great morning-after scene where he greets the bedraggled Spooner as if some long-lost Oxford chum is superb … Bradley's Spooner also memorably combines a predatory poverty with a touching gallantry … I was less impressed with David Walliams' Foster, which strangely misses the Orton-esque sexual banditry implied by a description of the character as ‘a vagabond cock’. This is a compelling revival much aided by Neil Austin's lighting and Adam Cork's subliminal sound. And when audience and cast finally joined in applauding Pinter, seated in a box, I felt it was in recognition of an eerily disturbing play that transports us into a world somewhere between reality and dream.” Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (four stars) – “I have never seen a Pinter play so possessed by deathly foreboding, menace and covert gay desire. Almost every pore of Rupert Goold’s revelatory production, with its ominous flutters of sound and music, is permeated by these emotions and athletic flights of black comedy … The key to the power of Goold’s illuminating revival lies in its revelation of the play’s gay ambience … Gambon’s florid gentleman of letters, eyes roving the room in blank impassivity, may have picked up David Bradley’s effete Spooner, but sex is not in the air since both men appear past anything but heavy fantasising about themselves … Nick Dunning’s splendid, thuggish Briggs sports spooky brown leather gloves and a surly stare, while David Walliams, all preening, lip-sticked, henna-haired attitude, makes a dazzlingly assured straight-stage debut as the sinister Foster.” Charles Spencer in the Daily Telgraph – “More than 30 years ago, as a young student, I reeled out of the premiere production of Harold Pinter's No Man's Land (1975) blown away by both the mysterious power of the play and the thrilling, mould-breaking performances of John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. Rupert Goold's superb new production, which opened last night in the West End, strikes me as equally fine, with Michael Gambon and David Bradley rising magnificently to the benchmark set by their illustrious predecessors … Gambon, his face like a battered lump of pink Play-Doh, his eyes like runny poached eggs, is in his element as the permanently pickled pensman Hirst, ranging from sudden moments of alert, mickey-taking joviality when he skips almost girlishly across the stage to the deep lethargy of the chronic alcoholic for whom drink is a ticket to oblivion. His disconcerting moments of utter vacancy are a chilling reminder that life can become a living death. David Bradley, sporting a disreputable suit you can almost smell, a grotesque pink cardigan and a distressing socks'n'sandals combo, proves the equal of the great Gambon every step of the way.” Simon Edge in the Daily Express (three stars) – “Gambon himself is magnificent. Glued into his armchair by booze, he peers bewildered at the guest he cannot remember inviting to join him, and the slightest widening of an eyelid seems like a dramatic event. For his part, Bradley looks wonderfully seedy, like a telegraph pole with wrinkles … But his rambling garrulousness is not as compelling as it could be, and you can forgive Gambon for drifting off … Nick Dunning’s rent-a-menace, as the senior butler Briggs, seems to fall into the category of Pinter-by-numbers. Meanwhile David Walliams … seems overwhelmed in his role as the younger houseman Foster. We know from Little Britain that he can be a seriously good actor, but here the need to be Pinteresque seems to have made him forget everything he knows about holding an audience … As a director, Goold thrives when he can turn an established script on its head and inside out. He seems less confident with the kind of work which – on Pinter’s terrifying say-so – there is no messing with.” - by Theo Bosanquet | | Michael Gambon & David Bradley in No Man's Land | |
Date: 8 October 2008 Yes, but what does it all mean? Kenneth Tynan railed against the “gratuitous obscurity” of Harold Pinter’s poetic 1975 play when it was first produced by Peter Hall at the National starring John Gielgud as the supplicant versifier Spooner and Ralph Richardson as his host Hirst, patron and supporter of the arts. But the play is always gloriously enjoyable as an off-kilter vaudeville of friendship and dependency. And with David Bradley as the crow-like attendant, a sort of straggle-haired Wurzel Gummidge of the pub poetry scene, and Michael Gambon as the aghast, haunted literato with a head full of secrets, Rupert Goold’s production for the Gate Theatre in Dublin, settling for a season in St Martin’s Lane, seems more than ever like a reminiscent re-run of Waiting for Godot, Hirst and Spooner trapped in their roles, and memories, in a cold limbo which is forever icy and forever silent. There is a theory that Godot is about alcoholism, the tramps’ nicknames, in French, standing for stiff drinks. The moment Gambon staggers, lurches slightly for the cocktail cabinet in Giles Cadle’s curiously impersonal, slightly cheap looking lounge (John Bury’s original design was a monumental grey mausoleum), you know that we’re in the boozer’s nightmare scenario of amnesia and inexplicable terror. The old boys have met in Jack Straw’s Castle on Hampstead Heath – where the finical, snooping Spooner is a “betwixt twig peeper” – and come back for the late night session. Always the great electrifying moment, Gambon bursts forth in daylight in a pin-striped suit to greet his old friend and evoke pre-War golden days in Oxford and their shared enthusiasm for the same woman. We soon realise this is the dawn before the dark and the great Gambon (Richardson’s name for him) will decline once more to that state of stricken gravity floating on the heroic intake of the malt that wounds. Bradley is equally superb as Spooner, cawing and craven, picking at his language, all revealed as he releases his tattered invitation to the poetry reading in Chalk Farm. The sinister henchmen are played by Nick Dunning and David Walliams. Dunning’s Briggs is a superbly malevolent jumped-up waiter, while Walliams’ Foster, technically stiff and insufficiently emphatic with his trailing phrases, nonetheless conveys his seedy past with a looming sneeriness. I love the play and the way it yields a different set of secrets on each viewing. Think of the setting, now, as a bizarre hospitality suite, the last hope saloon, the final round. - Michael Coveney | Score | Comment | Date |  | the whole damn play was pretty shit if you ask me, for goodness sake i couldn't even keep awake. what an awful production. fair enough theatre is full of exaggeration and predictable storylines, but thats whats so great and exciting about it. i got no joy from watching this mess what so ever. - joella | 12 Jan 09 | | Well David Walliams certainly deserves all the criticism he gets here. He's bloody awful and comes dangerously close to spoiling the beautifully balanced performances of Bradley and Gambon when he opens his mouth. Why on earth was he cast in the first place? Was it to pull in a new audience? Whatever the reason he has denied the chance for a young, TRAINED, actor to get a break - unforgivable! I still can't rate Pinter as highly as the literati do, but never the less I really enjoyed this production of one of his better plays, apart from, that is, Mr Walliams feeble effort. But what a joy it was to watch Gambon's Hirst seemingly to physically grow younger in the second act with a bravura performance which must surely put him in the running for an award this year. And, similarly, but in reverse Bradley's Spooner goes from arrogant loquaciousness in the first act to taciturn humility in the second. A masterclass in acting from these two. Pinter ought to have scrapped the two minor characters and simply made it a two hander. It's a sell-out show, but if you can get a return go and see it for Gambon and Bradley alone, you won't be disappointed. I have given it five stars for them alone. - rds | 02 Jan 09 | | Along with Gareth James and the West End Whingers I just don't get Pinter. Perhaps I'm stupid but I prefer my plays to have some semblance of a story. Instead we get the usual speechifying which might mean something but probably doesn't and the oh-so familiar sinister air of some unspoken threat. There's no arguing that the performances of Gambon and Bradley are remarkable and this is presumably something about memories and declining circumstances but I've seen it all before and must learn never to subject myself to it ever again. - David Baxter | 02 Dec 08 | | Overly hyped unfortunately. Gambon and Bradley great; Walliams just confirms that he's no actor... - Quentin | 27 Oct 08 | | Extra star if waxwork Walliams were replaced. Bradley and Gambon superb. Intermittently gripping.Only for Pinter fans. - JOHN RAYMOND | 21 Oct 08 | | A bewildering evening but that was to be expected. David Bradley and Michael Gambon get to the heart of the matter but though still is confusing you are aware of witnessing great acting. Just don't ask too many questionss of what it was about. David Walliams unfortunately looked very uncomfortable and while his character can bear this, his stiff delivery and demeanour was distracting. He's also unfortunately too type cast from Little Britain to really take on this. Perhaps musical theatre is more his forte? A grumbly very confused audience left the theatre at the end with many like me I'm sure feeling we had witnessed "actors doing theatrical things" somewhat indulgently in the name of art whilst we were in the real world. - Stuart | 10 Oct 08 | | ALTERNATELY GRIPPING AND IRRITATING - SOME OF THE LONGEURS HAVE VAGUE SIGNIFICANCE - WITH THREE BRILLIANT CONFIDENT PERFORMERS PLUS THE UNFORTUNATE DAVID WALLIAMS DESPERATE FOR STRAIGHT RECOGNITION AND ESCAPE FROM THE CRUDE VULGARITIES OF HIS PRIME ASSOCIATION WITH TV OBSCENITIES. HE FAILS. HOW DID HE GET CAST BY THE BRILLIANT GOOLD? BRADLEY IS BRILLIANTLY THE TRUE LEADING CHARACTER WITH FIVE TIMES MORE TO DO THAN THE VERY IMPRESSIVE GAMBON. FRAGMENTS OF PLOT ALTERNATE WITH SURREALISM, MOST OF IT ENTERTAINING. STIFF DRINK THEN SEE IT.THEN HAVE ANOTHER AND IT MAY BECOME CLEARER.ONLY IN THE THEATRE... - ALEX GREEN | 09 Oct 08 | | Good play ruined by the stunt casting of yet another comedian who can't act. - joesmith | 01 Oct 08 | | | Click here for more user reviews and to post your own |
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