{"id":7006,"date":"2013-08-28T18:41:34","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T01:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=7006"},"modified":"2013-08-28T18:56:23","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T01:56:23","slug":"ian-mckellen-patrick-stewart-shine-in-pre-broadway-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/ian-mckellen-patrick-stewart-shine-in-pre-broadway-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart shine in pre-Broadway play"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ian McKellen (left) and Patrick Stewart star in the pre-Broadway engagement of \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land.\u201d Photo: Kevinberne.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

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What\u2019s real?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the real question behind many an absurdist Harold Pinter play.<\/p>\n

The query\u2019s especially pertinent \u2014 when the playwright\u2019s elongated pauses and word-spurts are done \u2014 with \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land,\u201d which is entrenched at the Berkeley Rep through the end of the month.<\/p>\n

The play\u2019s been around since 1975, at which point its debut starred Ralph Richardson as Hirst, the drunken upper-class person of letters, and John Gielgud as Spooner, the failed poet who also knows close-up and personal the decaying consequences of alcohol.\u00a0Now Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart exquisitely fill those roles.\u00a0But only through Aug. 31 at the Rep before moving to Broadway.<\/p>\n

Is Spooner an old university classmate of Hirst\u2019s, an inner- or outer-circle chum who shared acquaintances and relationships?<\/p>\n

Maybe.<\/p>\n

Is he a liar, a charlatan \u2014 \u201ca lout,\u201d as Hirst declares at one point?<\/p>\n

Maybe.<\/p>\n

The mystery of who Spooner really is \u2014 or was \u2014 is left to the audience\u2019s verdict as the final curtain rings down.Along the way, however, Pinter\u2019s consistently rapier-sharp dialogue evokes copious laughter from his sporadically impenetrable, always serious-minded and thought-provoking reality vs. fantasy brainteaser.<\/p>\n

Sir Ian, 74, a world-renowned British Shakespearean actor, has also mastered fantastic \u201cX-Men\u201d and \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d characters. Sir Patrick, 73, likewise an adroit British Shakespearean actor, saw his fame go viral not when he portrayed \u201cHamlet\u201d but as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in \u201cStar Trek: The Next Generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both had wrung the last drop of evil out of the \u201cMacBeth\u201d title role. Now they\u2019re whipping the intellectual crap out of \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land\u201d at the Rep.<\/p>\n

And starting Oct. 26, the two (as well as supporting actors Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley as a pair of possibly gay manservants) will take the classic to the Great White Way and alternate performances with \u201cWaiting for Godot,\u201d a standard from the pen of Pinter\u2019s mentor\/friend, Samuel Beckett.I went to \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land,\u201d which I hadn\u2019t previously seen, with huge expectations.<\/p>\n

After all, Pinter, who died in 2008 after writing 30 plays (including \u201cThe Homecoming,\u201d \u201cBetrayal,\u201d \u201cThe Caretaker\u201d and \u201cThe Birthday Party\u201d), had won the Nobel Prize for Literature, hadn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n

And hadn\u2019t the Swedish Academy cited his work for unveiling \u201cthe precipice under everyday prattle\u201d?<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t the least bit disappointed, even when forced to strain on occasion to hear McKellen\u2019s mumbled words (which alternated with ultra-precise diction in his characterization of a staggering, impossible-to-pin-down drunk).<\/p>\n

Or when, once in a while, Pinter\u2019s use of British slang made clarity momentarily impossible.I found McKellen\u2019s performance so magnetic that even when he was a ragtag background figure clutching his overcoat and a bottle of booze, and another character was speaking, I often watched him.<\/p>\n

But Stewart (almost unrecognizable with hair) also could be compelling, depicting Hirst\u2019s underlying insensitivity and threats with a simple look. He could exhibit, too, social differences that can be delineated with few words. Such as, \u201cThis is another class\u2026it\u2019s a world of silk.\u201d<\/p>\n

I loved that director Sean Mathias wisely let his actors display all their theatrical gifts and thereby heighten the vaudevillian humor of set pieces (McKellen\u2019s bouncy movements while tying the laces of his tennis shoes, for instance).And I adored that Mathias let the often-enigmatic quality of Pinter\u2019s pithy phraseology float unshackled in the air: \u201cI will be kind to you\u201d and \u201cI have known this before\u2026a house of silence and strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

And allow, as well, seemingly irrefutable statements to stand on their own: \u201cI am too old for any expectations,\u201d \u201cI am yours to command\u201d and \u201cDo I detect a touch of the hostile?\u201d<\/p>\n

I found the lone set \u2014 an elegant, sparingly furnished room designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis \u2014 big enough to dwarf the players and put their human transience and frailties in proportion.With both leading thespians being about my age, I was exceptionally pleased to find they\u2019re still perfecting their stagecraft, with majestic, nuanced brilliance.<\/p>\n

Opening night of the most star-studded play seen in the Bay Area in many years, the audience gave all four actors a standing ovation and multiple curtain calls.<\/p>\n

They earned them.<\/p>\n

For their superlative interpretations of characters who, despite its frequent splashes of humor, reside in a \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land\u201d that disturbingly \u201cnever changes [but] remains forever icy and silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

And perplexing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo Man\u2019s Land\u201d plays at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre\u2018s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley, through Aug. 31. Tickets: $17.50 to $135, subject to change, (510) 647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s real? That\u2019s the real question behind many an absurdist Harold Pinter play. The query\u2019s especially pertinent \u2014 when the playwright\u2019s elongated pauses and word-spurts are done \u2014 with \u201cNo…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"