Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

"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.