{"id":3631,"date":"2005-09-21T07:30:13","date_gmt":"2005-09-21T11:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3631"},"modified":"2023-08-17T07:39:40","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T11:39:40","slug":"the-books-old-times-harold-pinter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3631","title":{"rendered":"The Books: \u201cOld Times\u201d (Harold Pinter)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next in my Daily Book Excerpt:<\/p>\n

Next on the script shelf:<\/p>\n

\"OldTimes.jpg\"Next on the shelf: another Harold Pinter play: Old Times<\/a>\"\".<\/p>\n

There are three characters in this haunting spare play: a man named Deeley, his wife Kate, and Kate’s friend Anna – who is visiting them. Kate and Anna haven’t seen one another for 20 years. And, of course, there’s a lot of suppressed stuff going on in that relationship. Underneath the entire thing, as a matter of fact, is a world of darkness. Questions Pinter makes you ask: Is Kate actually dead, and is Deeley a widow? Is Anna his new wife? Did he actually know Anna from way back when, and he and Anna are only pretending to just meet now? The script gives clues, but never answers.<\/p>\n

I’ll post the opening of the play.<\/p>\n

This play is reaaaaally Pinter-pause heavy. The struggle with it is to NOT ADD MORE PAUSES, which is very difficult, believe it or not. If this play is done with a lethargic pace, it’s deadly. But if you keep the pauses specific, and only pause where Pinter says “pause” – then it’s fascinating. The pauses are like a musical score – pianissimo, etc. It tells you where to go.<\/p>\n


\nEXCERPT FROM Old Times (Pinter, Harold)<\/a>\"\", by Harold Pinter<\/b><\/p>\n

[Deeley, slumped in armchair, still.
\nKate curled on a sofa, still.
\nAnna standing at the window, looking out.<\/p>\n

Silence.<\/p>\n

Lights up on Deeley and Kate, smoking cigarettes.<\/p>\n

Anna’s figure remains still in dim light or the window.<\/i>]<\/p>\n

KATE. [reflectively<\/i>] Dark.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Fat or thin?<\/p>\n

KATE. Fuller than me. I think.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. She was then?<\/p>\n

KATE. I think so.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. She may not be now.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

Was she your best friend?<\/p>\n

KATE. Oh, what does that mean?<\/p>\n

DEELEY. What?<\/p>\n

KATE. The word friend … when you look back … all that time.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Can’t you remember what you felt?<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

KATE. It is a very long time.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. But you remember her. She remembers you. Or why would she be coming here tonight?<\/p>\n

KATE. I suppose because she remembers me.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Did you think of her as your best friend?<\/p>\n

KATE. She was my only friend.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Your best and only.<\/p>\n

KATE. My one and only.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

If you have only one of something you can’t say it’s the best of anything.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Because you have nothing to compare it with?<\/p>\n

KATE. Mmmn.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. [smiling<\/i>] She was incomparable.<\/p>\n

KATE. Oh, I’m sure she wasn’t.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. I didn’t know you had so few friends.<\/p>\n

KATE. I had none. None at all. Except her.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Why her?<\/p>\n

KATE. I don’t know. [Pause<\/i>] She was a thief. She used to steal things.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Who from?<\/p>\n

KATE. Me.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. What things?<\/p>\n

KATE. Bits and pieces. Underwear.<\/p>\n

[Deeley chuckles<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Will you remind her?<\/p>\n

KATE. Oh … I don’t think so.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Is that what attracted you to her?<\/p>\n

KATE. What?<\/p>\n

DEELEY. The fact that she was a thief.<\/p>\n

KATE. No.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Are you looking forward to seeing her?<\/p>\n

KATE. No.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. I am. I shall be very interested.<\/p>\n

KATE. In what?<\/p>\n

DEELEY. In you. I’ll be watching you.<\/p>\n

KATE. Me? Why?<\/p>\n

DEELEY. To see if she’s the same person.<\/p>\n

KATE. You think you’ll find that out through me?<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Definitely.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

KATE. I hardly remember her. I’ve almost totally forgotten her.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Any idea what she drinks?<\/p>\n

KATE. None.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. She may be a vegetarian.<\/p>\n

KATE. Ask her.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. It’s too late. You’ve cooked your casserole. [Pause<\/i>] Why isn’t she married? I mean, why isn’t she bringing her husband?<\/p>\n

KATE. Ask her.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Do I have to ask her everything?<\/p>\n

KATE. Do you want me to ask your questions for you?<\/p>\n

DEELEY. No. Not at all.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

KATE. Of course she’s married.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. How do you know?<\/p>\n

KATE. Everyone’s married.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Then why isn’t she bringing her husband?<\/p>\n

KATE. Isn’t she?<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Did she mention a husband in her letter?<\/p>\n

KATE. No.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. What do you think he’d be like? I mean, what sort of man would she have married? After all, she was your best — your only — friend. You must have some idea. What kind of man would he be?<\/p>\n

KATE. I have no idea.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Haven’t you any curiosity?<\/p>\n

KATE. You forget. I know her.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. You haven’t seen her for twenty years.<\/p>\n

KATE. You’ve never seen her. There’s a difference.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. At least the casserole is big enough for four.<\/p>\n

KATE. You said she was a vegetarian.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Did she<\/i> have many friends?<\/p>\n

KATE. Oh … the normal amount, I suppose.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Normal? What’s normal? You had none.<\/p>\n

KATE. One.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Is that normal? [Pause<\/i>] She … had quite a lot of friends, did she?<\/p>\n

KATE. Hundreds.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. You met them?<\/p>\n

KATE. Not all, I think. But after all, we were living together. There were visitors, from time to time. I met them.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Her visitors?<\/p>\n

KATE. What?<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Her visitors. Her friends. You had no friends.<\/p>\n

KATE. Her friends, yes.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. You met them. [Pause. Abruptly.<\/i>] You lived together?<\/p>\n

KATE. Mmmmn?<\/p>\n

DEELEY. You lived together?<\/p>\n

KATE. Of course.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. I didn’t know that.<\/p>\n

KATE. Didn’t you?<\/p>\n

DEELEY. You never told me that. I thought you just knew each other.<\/p>\n

KATE. We did.<\/p>\n

DEELEY. But in fact you lived with each other.<\/p>\n

KATE. Of course we did. How else would she steal my underwear from me? In the street?<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. I knew you had shared with someone at one time … [Pause<\/i>] But I didn’t know it was her.<\/p>\n

KATE. Of course it was.<\/p>\n

[Pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. Anyway, none of this matters.<\/p>\n

[Anna turns from the window, speaking, and moves down to them, eventually sitting on the second sofa<\/i>]<\/p>\n

ANNA. Queuing all night, the rain, do you remember? my goodness, the Albert Hall, Covent Garden, what did we eat? to look back, half the night, to do things we loved, we were young then of course, but what stamina, and to work in the morning, and to a concert, or the opera, or the ballet, that night, you haven’t forgotten? and then riding on top of the bus down Kensington High Street, and the bus conductors, and then dashing for the matches for the gasfire and then I suppose scrambled eggs, or did we? both giggling and chattering, both huddling to the heat, then bed and sleeping, and all the hustle and bustle in the morning, rushing for the bus again for work, lunchtimes in Green Park, exchanging all our news, with our very own sandwiches, innocent girls, innocent secretaries, and then the night to come, and goodness knows what excitement in store, I mean the sheer expectation of it all, the looking-forwardness of it all, and so poor, but to be poor and young, and a girl, in London then … and the cafes we found, almost private ones, weren’t they? where artists and writers and sometimes actors collected, and others with dancers, we sat hardly breathing with our coffee, heads bent, so as not to be seen, so as not to disturb, so as not to distract, and listened and listened to all those words, all those cafes and all those people, creative undoubtedly, and does it still exist I wonder? do you know? can you tell me?<\/p>\n

[Slight pause<\/i>]<\/p>\n

DEELEY. We rarely get to London.<\/p>\n

\n