Three Pinter Plays

Norwich Theatre Royal Actors’ Company at The Forum, Norwich

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 20 June 2009

Three Pinter Plays

Rehearsed readings of three of Harold Pinter’s political pieces in support of Refugee Week is not everybody’s cup of tea. Pinter’s anger against injustice, corruption, power and torture rings out.

It’s Norwich Theatre Royal Actors’ Company with the Norwich Writers’ Centre and the excellent Roger Lloyd Pack in the lead roles and Kirsty Bushell and Patrick Kennedy in fine form.

One for the Road is a terrifying dance of the powerful around helpless victims. Owen Mustard is the boy whose parents are arrested to be tortured. Ashes to Ashes is a questioning into her past between a man and a woman he presses for details. It’s uncomfortable. It has a sparse harshness with a human coating.

Press Conference is a sketch of a minister from a corrupt regime at the podium defending policy. It has a comic resonance today.

An evening of profound thought.