Old Times

Exeunt“Pinter blurs the boundaries between his characters in a haunting fashion...” As Rickson’s perfectly judged production ends on a desolate tableau, the exaggerated proportions of the set reflect the strange and elusive ghost story that Old Times has become...

The Stage“Intricately patterned and layered triangular drama...” It may be now familiar Pinter terrain, but an extraordinary cast make it fresh, fascinating and alive (even if one of its characters may quite possibly be dead)...

Guardian“What starts as a game turns into a threat to his manhood...” Time and again, Rickson's production illuminates the play: in none of the half-dozen versions I've seen has the conflict between Anna and Deeley carried quite such an erotic charge as it does here...

The Independent“Highly compelling revival of Harold Pinter's 1971 play...” Old Times is a play about which I have always had mixed feelings, but Rickson's haunting yet robust production with its fascinating casting ploy offers more positive reasons for being in two minds about it...

The Arts Desk“A casting conceit that makes a rich work even richer...” One of the theatrical treats of the year would be to see Old Times twice, with each of the casting arrangements. A sin would be not to see it at least the once...

Whatsonstage.com“Pressing all the right buttons and a few unexpected ones...” What's so compelling about the play is that hard detail is always bumping up against the dreaminess...Like Beckett, Pinter is re-modelling a Proustian literature of memory in music hall parlance...

The Telegraph“Conjuring a world of loneliness in which terrible things might happen... ” Rickson directs with care and subtlety, with haunting piano music by Stephen Warbeck and designs by Hildegard Bechtler that make the converted farmhouse where the action takes resemble one of those bleak interiors painted by Edward Hopper...