My favourite play - No Man's Land at the Oxford Playhouse 2002

As the Oxford Playhouse is closed, they were asking us to email our memories of productions there. This is what I sent.

Fortunately, Oxford's Daily Info carried a review of No Man's Land that was performed at the Oxford Playhouse in February 2002 as I only have the ticket to confirm my attendance there on 28th. I know I had the programme, but somehow it's not where it should be.

This production opened at The National Theatre in December 2001 (the photos are from there) and for the tour, a couple of the cast were changed. Corin Redgrave still appeared in one of the lead as Hirst, but John Wood as Spooner was replaced by Hugh Futcher. Andy de la Tour reprised his role as Briggs, but Danny Dyer's role as Foster was played by Gary Shelford. My memory is not good enough to confirm all this, so I am relying on Sheelagh Doyle's review below.

All the reviews for the London production were first class, even Michael Billington (the foremost theatre critic of his day - he retired in 2019) gave it five stars. What made it special was that it was directed by the playwright himself. Billington called Harold Pinter's presentation a poem. I just found it enthralling.

NO MAN'S LAND, by Harold Pinter
OXFORD PLAYHOUSE to Saturday 2nd March, 2002

No Man's Land is about two writers, Hirst (Corin Redgrave), a successful poet and Spooner (Hugh Futcher), a failed poet who meet at Jack Straw's Pub on Hampstead Heath and return to Hirst's impressive, if impersonal, home for a drink. Hirst, a writer who has not written or published for quite some time is unable to unlock his creative powers and is trapped, possibly as a result of his own success, in no man's land. His servants, Foster (Gary Shelford) and Briggs (Andy de la Tour) appear at times to have more control over their employer then he has over them. Spooner, a desperate man in need of some sort of haven, tries to awaken Hirst's creative powers thus rescuing them both from the no man's land. This alcohol-fueled play leaves Hirst in a drunken stupor and Spooner locked in the room for the night at the end of act one. The next morning, Hirst, oblivious to the happenings of the night before, greets Spooner with a different name and proceeds to reminisce about their Oxford days. Spooner eventually joins in with Hirst, making connections with the past as he builds up to use the opportunity to ask for a job as his secretary. Alas for Spooner, Hirst is already too far-gone in that day's drunkenness to consider his request.

No Man's Land asks more questions than gives answers and is about the inevitability of old age. Whilst the play is about the search for connections, all four characters are given the opportunity to speak uninterrupted and at length about their individual chaos. This is an excellent opportunity to watch remarkable acting under Pinter's perceptive direction.

Corin Redgrave gives a superb performance as the impassive, inebriated Hirst. Hugh Futcher comes across magnificently as the pathetic Spooner, a failed man doing menial jobs to sustain himself while desperately trying to escape no man's land.
Gary Shelford's Foster and Andy de la Tour's Briggs are also superb in their intimidating roles and evoke a threatening force over Spooner as he makes efforts to awake the creative forces with Hirst. The stage and lighting directions reflect the central themes and represent Hirst's home as a stagnant hotel like room with an antique drink cabinet as the focal point.

Written and directed by Harold Pinter, No Man's Land is a ingenious mix of the comical and the disturbing which looks at the ultimate emptiness that can accompany old age and asks what is to be done when there is nothing left to do.

Sheelagh Doyle
26/02/02