One for the road: [a play] (A Methuen new theatrescript) [Paperback]

Harold Pinter (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 24 pages
• Publisher: Methuen; First Edition edition (1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0413560600
• ISBN-13: 978-0413560605
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,678,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pinter's Finest, March 12, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: One for the Road (Paperback)

"One For The Road" marks a major departure for Harold Pinter, providing readers and theatregoers with a theatrical experience that is riveting and unnerving. I have directed this play several times and have always found it to be a goldmine of writing. The language is exact, offering clear and distinct motivation from the characters, yet the play allows ample room for interpretation. Though it concerns the events of political torture--it is much more than that. It is subtle in its examination of power, corruption, and the apparent ease of destroying one's soul. I have had the "interrogator" played by both a man and a woman; the results were always the same: anyone can destroy a person's life with only words. The physical torture in the play happens offstage, but the punishment of the characters is performed in front of our eyes by the interrogator's words. It is one of the most violent moments in theatre. It is classic Pinter. A true masterpiece.

As a side note: The US version of "One For The Road" contains a glaring ommision in the text. Early in the text the interrogator speaks of the victims eyes. There is a small speech that he makes about the viewing the soul of one's eyes. This speech is missing two, very crucial lines that are in the English text, but missing from the US version. This is not a change by Pinter, but a publishing error by Grove. This explains a rating of "8" since the text is incomplete.