ON NO MAN'S LAND
To attempt a faithful description of this play is a daunting task. Harold Pinter’s cryptic No Man’s Land has proved delightfully confounding for audiences since its premiere in 1975. Language is insufficient to capture the myriad interpretations to be found in this work.
Is the play a melodrama, the story of a stranger who inserts himself into the affairs of a house not his own? Is it a comedic marathon for actors, stuffed with wordplay and impossible quantities of booze?
At times it reads as one big in-joke at the expense of London’s class system, filled with references and allusions spanning cricket players, Virgil and Eliot. At other times it is an intellectual experiment, examining the (tenuous) connection between truth and language. Or is it simply a mystery for audiences to solve, connecting dots and weighing facts?
Perhaps the answer to these questions is a global “yes.” Pinter asks his audience to hold contradictory truths in his play filled with sharp turns; one moment it is morning, the next it is night. What can be said with certainty about the play is that it is a symphony, carefully scored, of cosmic dread and humor. It is a territorial standoff between generations that takes a frank look at loneliness, isolation and the relationships between men.
Also undeniable is that No Man’s Land provides two incredible roles for seasoned actors—the foppish Spooner, and the upper crust Hirst, played by Steppenwolf co-founder Jeff Perry. To have actors inhabit these dynamic characters at the center of a play, not in the background as an ailing grandfather or a foolish elder, is a rare gift.
Thank you for joining us for No Man’s Land, the final production in Steppenwolf’s season, our first in leading the institution. We hope you join us next year for more stories that provoke, challenge, inspire and delight.
Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis
Artistic Directors