Customer Reviews

Ashes to Ashes

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Harold Pinter's 1996 play ASHES TO ASHES is a dialogue between Rebecca and Devlin, a married couple. Devlin is curious about Rebecca's former lover, here called a factory owner, here called a travel agent, who dominated her completely:

"REBECCA: Well, he would stand over me and clench his fist. And then he'd put his other hand on my neck and grip it and bring my head towards him. His fist ... grazed my mouth. And he'd say 'Kiss my fist.' " Devlin's proddings reveal that Rebecca's lover was no ordinary travel agent. "REBECCA: He did work from a travel agency. He was a guide. He used to go to the local railway station and walk down the platform and tear all the babies from the arms of their screaming mothers." Through these revelations, interspersed with the most banal of everyday conversation, Rebecca and Devlin remember, retell, and eventually re-enact the horrible shared history of the 20th century, with its Holocaust, wars, and massacres.

The brutality it recounts can make the reader or spectator very uncomfortable, and ASHES TO ASHES succeeds in reminding us of the horrors of the 20th century, horrors that any human being can fall into creating. However, I do not think it is quite as successful as other plays Pinter wrote in this same era, such as "Mountain Language" or "Party Time." Incidentally, I must express my disappointment that American edition altered Pinter's original text, giving "soccer" instead of "football".

ONE OF HAROLD PINTER'S RECENT PLAYS, THIS DRAMA GRAPHICALLY EXPLORES CONCERNS OF THE PLAYWRIGHT'S THAT HAVE BEEN FOREMOST IN HIS WRITING SINCE THE BEGINNING OF HIS CAREER ALONG WITH THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN FOREGROUNDED FOR THE PAST TWO DECADES. QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NATURE OF REALITY, HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS, AND INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS ARE BLENDED WITH HIS POLITICAL INTERESTS, MOST PARTICULARLY WITH HIS EXPLORATION OF THE HOLOCAUST.

IN THIS GRIPPING STAGE PLAY, THE HEROINE TELLS A MAN ABOUT HER MEMORIES OF SEEING CHILDREN, HER OWN CHILD BEING AMONG THEM, BEING RIPPED FROM THEIR MOTHER'S ARMS BY MEN IN UNIFORM, ONE OF WHOM WAS HER LOVER. BUT, THE MAN CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE IS SAYING, AND SHE IS TOO YOUNG TO HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN THE HOLOCAUST. SO, IS SHE REMEMBERING ANOTHER, MORE RECENT HOLOCAUST, OR HAS THE HOLOCAUST BECOME PART OF A JUNGIAN, RACIAL MEMORY?

ALTHOUGH NOT A MODERN CLASSIC LIKE THE HOMECOMING OR OLD TIMES, THIS IS ONE OF THE DRAMATIST'S MOST MOVING WORKS.