Review: NO MAN'S LAND at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

It’s easy to see why Harold Pinter’s NO MAN’S LAND has been categorized as Theater of the Absurd: The play focuses on four male characters in a nebulous space, debating nothing and everything all at the same time. Les Waters directs a game ensemble of actors who wholeheartedly embrace the true absurdity and existentialism of the text. The production design mirrors the liminal state of the play: Andrew Boyce’s set is a staid, elegant, and sparsely populated living room (chiefly featuring two armchairs and two decidedly less comfortable chairs on each side of the stage). All of the action takes place inside a literal room, with walls flanked by an open blue-gray space. Janice Pytel’s costume designs are likewise timeless: Well-tailored suits that seem oddly formal for just sitting around, talking about nothing. But they fit the production nicely. Mikhail Fiksel’s sound design lends an extra sense of eeriness to the production as well.

Considering that Pinter’s writing is comprised of many meandering moments, Waters’s staging often felt static. The direction would have benefited from more dynamics and movement to aid the text’s fleeting nature and help ground audiences in the production. The actors often delivered long monologues sitting or standing in one place. For example, Mark Ulrich’s Spooner delivers a lengthy, pleading monologue to Jeff Perry’s Hirst, the master of this liminal house, while standing in one spot the entire time. There’s some more dynamic moments, particularly from Hirst’s household staff Briggs (Jon Hudson Odom) and Foster (Samuel Roukin). As Briggs, Odom’s preciseness and bluntness infuses some humor into the piece; his physical work is some of the best in the production — just watch as he ever so slowly opens a champagne bottle for Spponer. That said, I was craving more movement and visual elements to Water’s staging.

That’s not to say the individual performances are lacking, but the vision needed more visuals for the audiences to take in. Perry is the practical embodiment of absurdism as Hirst, flitting from moment to moment with a simultaneous air of self-importance and inanity. Ulrich responds in kind as Spooner, clamoring to gain a foothold in a space in which Hirst seems to hold all power. Roukin has an impeccable sense of timing as Foster, undoubtedly the quietest character on the stage but his line deliveries pack a punch. 

Overall, NO MAN’S LAND conveys an aching sense of limbo. Watching this production, however, I was more interested in the play’s overall sense of absurdity and existentialism than in the specificities of this production’s vision. 

NO MAN’S LAND plays Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater, 1650 North Halsted, through August 20, 2023. Tickets start at $20. 

Photo Credit: Michael Brosilow

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