Ashes to Ashes - Premiere
 
 

Programme Cover

First produced at the Royal Court Theatre, London 12 September 1996


Devlin - Steven Rea
Rebecca - Lindsay Duncan

Directed by Harold Pinter

Designer - Eileen Diss
Lighting - Mick Hughes
Costume - Tom Rand
Sound - Tom Lishman

 

Ashes to Ashes takes us on a mysterious, sinister and hypnotic journey. More and more emerges, without our ever being able to latch on to something that would count as a journalistic fact. Unusually, as you watch it, you get the sense of the characters revealing themselves to us at exactly the same point as they revealed themselves to the author.

 

 

Lindsay Duncan and Stephen Rae
photo Ivan Kyncl

It's as if he were making it up as he went along - and only Pinter could get away with it. Yet for all its atmosphere of uncertainty, Ashes to Ashes is utterly sure of itself - poised, deliberate, concentrated - giving off an intensely troubled air of things going on, and things held back, too painful to speak of. Like a painting or piece of music, it doesn't explain itself. It simply exists: as masterly dialogue, superb acting and precisely focused direction (by Pinter himself). It's only an hour in length, so you have the rest of the evening to ponder what it is about. You'll need it.
Independent on Sunday 22 September 1996
with kind permission Independent on Sunday

 
Back to plays Main Page
                         
Amazon   Faber & Faber   Slate   Royal National Theatre   Comedie Francaise   Ticketmaster.co.uk   Samuel french
                         
Internal Links: Plays | Films | Biography | Poetry | Politics | Acting | Directing | Publications | Calendar | Links | Forum | Archive | Home
External Links: Faber and Faber | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | National Theatre | Comedie-Francaise | Gate Theatre | Ticketmaster | Auteurs.net | Slate | Amnesty
Other Items: The Observer | Letter to the Independent | Depleted Uranium | One For The Road | No Mans Homecoming | New World Order | Degree Speech
 
Harold Pinter's work is represented by Judy Daish Associates Limited - and applications for all performances and uses of Harold Pinter's work (including amateur and professional stage performances, radio broadcasts, television transmissions and readings and use of extracts) need to be addressed to them in the first instance and in advance of finalizing your plans. Judy Daish Associates will then contact the Estate of Harold Pinter (Lady Antonia Fraser Pinter) if appropriate. The Estate should not be contacted directly for permissions. Please do not assume that a licence or permission will be forthcoming as there are sometimes conflicts between permission requests.
 
© Harold Pinter 2000 - 2012 All Rights Reserved | Disclaimer
 
Ticketmaster.co.uk