No Man's Land

There are two unforgettable images in Goold's production of Pinter's hypnotic play: one is of Michael Gambon's Hirst, his battered face more jowly than ever, staring blankly into the audience; the other is of the same man bounding skittishly on in a smart suit in the morning. Hirst is a wealthy alcoholic who lives in a prison of his own making. He has invited a guest back to his house: David Bradley's seedy Spooner who he picked up in a Hampstead pub.Torn between his old fear of failure and ending up like Spooner, and his new fear of success and of a future like Hirst's, Pinter wrote one of his most haunting plays and Bradley and Gambon are the men to bring it to life.