No Man's Land

Four characters struggle for survival and identity, using words as their weapons. We are offered glimpses of their lines that we can not the sure if what we are told is true or fiction. Come and be intrigued by the winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for a lifetime's achievement in the theatre.

Born in England in 1930, playwright Harold Pinter has entertained and befuddled audiences since his first full-length play, The Birthday Party, was produced in London in 1958. No Man's Land was written during 1974 and opened on 23rd April 1975. The stellar cast that director Peter Hall was able to assemble for his production, Gielgud and Richardson played Spooner and Hirst respectively, belied the turmoil of its creation. The play stemmed from a very unhappy period of Pinter's life when his marriage to Vivien Merchent was in terminal decline.

Like all of Pinter's major plays, No Man's Land is set in a single room, whose occupants are threatened by forces or people whose precise intentions neither the characters nor the audience can define. The play follows Spooners attempts to penetrate Hirst's drink addled defences and outflank his sinister servants. The competitive gamesmanship of Spooner and Hirst, whose weapons are words, is contrasted with the brutality of Foster and Briggs as they seek to protect their own self interests.

In comencing rehearsal, we each arrived with our own thoughts about the motivations of the characters and the dynamics of the play. Much rehearsal time has involved teasing out meaning and whilst we agree on the fundamentals, differences remain. With such thought provoking writing, this will be inevitable and it is a process to which you as the audience can now contribute, like him or loathe him, Pinter will always give you something to talk about.

No Man's Land by Harold Pinter, the play exposing the wasteland of a great man's soul as he approaches senility will be The Nonentities next studio presentation. On stage 19th to 24th February at The Rose Theatre, Kidderminster is promising a disturbing battle between three predatory characters for possession of an ageing poet Hirst, who are individuals in their own right but can be seen as not-so-beneath the surface elements of the great man's own troubled life and mind.

Director Trevor Bailey said, "what's good about this play, besides the lovely use of words, is that it works as a power struggle between the four figures, but also as an image for what's going on in a man's at the end of his life, a particularly interesting man who has enjoyed some success but clearly is racked by demons and fighting to suppress hidden drives."

Audiences will be gripped from the the start as Hirst is coaxed to accept the friendship of Spooner who may be a man in he knows from the past or who may be a source of sexual interest. But, having invited Spooner into his home, Hirst doesn't seem to know what to do with him and key questions are asked. If Hirst wants a friend, why is he so reluctant to talk and instead more keen on drowning himself in the "greater malt that wounds"? And what exactly is the relationship between Briggs and Foster who appear to be servants but who bully their master and who to Spooner show a marked territorial aggression.

Tickets start from as little as £4.50 for a rarely seen the modern classic which will engross the audience, but also cause them to ask searching questions about male relations. It also serves as an interesting examination of the old values of the twentieth century being crushed by the new opportunism of thugs and parasites - the emerging yuppies and embryonic Vodafone generation. The play does contain strong language.

The Nonentities next production is a claustrophobic chamber piece by the unnerving Harold Pinter. No Man's Land will take to the intimate studio from 19th to 24th February and is bound to offer a challenging and psychologically illuminating evening of drama. However, the play and its staging location are not the only source of intensity for this project.

The production is currently in rehearsal and has three teachers in its four handed cast plus a director who is currently Head of Science at a school in Cannock. This teaming of personnel is purely fortuitous but ensures a healthy probing of the plays elliptical language and layers of meaning. Director Trevor Bailey is delighted to be presenting this gem of a play by the master of understated threat Harold Pinter. He said, "it was originally cast with Gielgud and Richardson in the main roles and consequently really is revived. However, I am confident that my team will produce a memorable production."

Among the cast are two retired schoolteachers: Nonentities chairman, Colin Young, and Dennis Beasley whose careers passed in education many years before they shared a stage. They play two ageing poets who both the want something from the other but are perhaps scared of giving too much in return. Bromsgrove's Martin Drury is currently head of English at King Edward VI Five Ways school, but in his spare time is enjoying the role of neurotic gangster Foster while the part of the play's heavy, more violence than psychology, falls to Athol M'Donald, the only non-teacher in the cast. On one level is a battle for power between the old and new orders but also a dissection of male attitude to art, work, sexuality, and relationships. Athol said, "There are four characters fighting to get one over on each other, but they could also be seen as aspects of the same person. Whatever, the play is a beautifully written."

Tickets for this is stirring play, strong stuff with its power games and adult language, are now on sale for as little as £4.50.