Ensemble Theatre

Two one-act Harold Pinter plays starring three actors across five roles for a total of two hours entertainment plus intermission – if we judged theatre by weight, that’d sound like a pretty good deal. And it is, because you tend to get more than you expect from Ensemble Theatre, and certainly from Pinter, if you’re not ready for him.  The relatively confined space of the Ensemble stage is a good fit for Pinter’s drawing room dreadfuls. The fact that we’re getting a double feature – a twofer! – speaks to the Music Hall traditions underpinning Pinter’s work, the way he was keyed to the rhythms of working class and middle class voices. It’s also the first hint that this is Pinter-as-comedy, although it’s still the comedy of menace. Pinter was the most mercurial of the angry young men who barreled through mid-20th-century British culture, and his work invites diverse interpretations. Here, director Mark Kilmurry has leaned into laughs, although often rueful. The Lover (1962) puts us in the ’60s-chic suburban home of housewife Sarah (Nicole da Silva – The Memory of Water, TV’s Wentworth) and businessman Richard (Gareth Davies – Benefactors, Belvoir’s The Master And Margarita) as they exchange pleasantries and also frank details of their extra-marital affairs. She has a lover, Max, who visits while Richard is at work. Richard admits to frequenting an anonymous whore (his words) for after-office dalliances. Then we meet Max – and Max, is Richard. The Lover is a brittle, nervy...