UK Review: The Birthday Party

As a painted cloth - showing deckchairs on a beach - rises to reveal Peter McKintosh's bleak, faded design with dining room and kitchenette, you could be forgiven for thinking you were witnessing the recent Mike Leigh film Vera Drake on stage. Add to the equation a doting Meg (Eileen Atkins) and quiet husband Petey (Geoffery Hutchings), comparisons with the recent film were apparent straightaway.

Like Vera Drake, there is lots of pause and time to reflect, especially in the breakdown of a seemingly innocent victim. But all comparisons end here. Whereas Drake draws you into her world, this production leaves you peering in through the fourth wall, a definite outsider.

Stanley (Paul Ritter), an unemployed 'end-of-the-pier pianist' lives upstairs in a room hired out by Meg and Petey. On Stanley's supposed birthday is the arrival of the sinister, anonymous figures Goldberg (Henry Goodman) and McCann (Finbar Lynch) – classic Pinter characters who no doubt formed the basis for The Dumb Waiter. An immediate catalyst for trouble erupts and plans for a birthday party form.

Pinter's play still suffers from the same criticisms it usually attracts – it's undeniably slow. It's certainly intriguing - you daren't take your eyes off for a moment for fear you'll miss something exciting - but it's not gripping. The writing is intoxicating; you leave hungover, slightly dazed, rather like its characters.

As Goldberg, Goodman is effortless. He has perfect timing; comic yet mysterious – and has an overwhelming charm on Meg in Act 2. Atkins brings the most haunting qualities to this production; the infamous birthday party is genuinely tense and exciting.

Although director Lindsay Posner at times lifts Pinter's play considerably, the slumps are infuriating, and so many unanswered questions leave you baffled and confused. But if it's creation of a genuinely sobering atmosphere you're after, this production succeeds.

The Birthday Party runs at the Birmingham Rep until March 26th, tours to Bath, Malvern and Cambridge ahead of a West End run at the Duchess Theatre from April April 20th.

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