UK Theatre Network

One For The Road & Victoria Station

by Harold Pinter

The Print Room 13 Sept – 1 Oct

Young Vic 6 – 15 October

Nestled off a quiet, unassuming street in Notting Hill, in what resembles someone's back garden, is The Print Room. An exciting new theatre space which opened its doors in September 2010, after being converted from a fifties warehouse, which housed a Printer's workshop. An apt coincidence then, that they should be performing Pinter at a Printers.

This double bill of Pinter's Victoria Station & One For The Road provides a great opportunity to see two of his lesser known short plays, which feature his trademark themes of menace, oppression and absurd power politics. Victoria Station is an existential crises of a two hander, where Minicab controller, Keith Dunphy despairingly attempts to direct bemused taxi driver, Kevin Doyle to pick up a passenger from Victoria Station. The only problem is that the driver doesn't know where Victoria is, let alone what a station is. Dunphy's lamp lit face, is a boiling image of rage as he vents his spleen, pleading into the radio with a strong Irish accent, “247, 247, can you just go to Victoria Station.” It is agonizing to watch his excruciating attempts at directing Doyle, who responds with nervous uncertainty. In the cold of the small hours and with the white noise of the radio, each man's loneliness is unbearably accentuated. Pinter evokes the essence of frustration by providing no suitable reasons or answers for why the driver is so perplexed, there is just terminal doubt, in a one sided conversation where each man's isolation is his only certainty.

The seamless transition between Victoria Station and One For The Road is so subtle, the harrowing subject matter takes you completely by surprise. Mischa Twitchin's fluorescent lighting design flickers on, cruelly illuminating both audience and actors alike, in a voyeuristic square of torture where there is no where to hide. The atmosphere is so oppressively sterile, director, Jeff James makes you feel as though your own reactions are being observed. In a cunning power reversal, Kevin Doyle is Nicolas, a sadistic, monomaniac, who believes he is the voice of God. Interrogating both Victor (Keith Dunphy) and the rest of his family separately, Doyle portrays a frighteningly disturbing character who switches between chummy pal and unrelenting persecutor with consummate ease. His first testament style justice and unpredictable nature make him all the more threatening as he skilfully deploys Pinter's pregnant pauses like needles under the nails. Dunphy's Victor is a shivering wreck of a man, unable to stand and covered in scars, he can hardly utter a single word as the squeak of Nicholas's Whisky cap, tightens the tension. Tortured and imprisoned in a separate room, Gila, played by Anna Hewson is distressingly believable as his ravaged wife, who suffers Doyle's relentless irrational questions. The presence of Nicky, their son (Thomas Capodici or Rory Frazer) is particularly worrying, whose apparent carefree nature is in stark contrast with his parents extreme torment. Pinter exposes us to a savage representation of torture and oppression, where human rights have no sanctity. This is a seriously disturbing play which feels perhaps a little too gratuitous, one is left totally shocked by the chilling scenes of psychological torture but it is hard to understand how this is a critique of political power and not a slight exploitation of an extremely sensitive subject matter. We all know torture is horrific, but is it not more interesting to examine why we consider it wrong, rather than simply intimidate the audience?

With such a high calibre cast, excellent direction and innovative design, it is definitely worth trying to catch One For The Road and Victoria Station at The Print Room, or when it transfers to the Young Vic in October. If you're bored of feeling relaxed and cheerful, go and see these two plays and relieve yourself with some serious anxiety and sobering depression.