"If you’ve seen 'Old Times' before, and retain fond memories of its quiet creeping impact, Mr. Hodge’s flashy production may well irritate you...Though this is not an 'Old Times' for purists, it has its pleasures...I’ve seldom seen a cast so palpably enjoying delivering Pinter’s dialogue, even if it often here feels closer to Noël Coward...I’d love to see them have the chance to lower their voices, kick off their poses and make themselves more comfortably at home in this ever-discomfiting play."
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"If the central conflict of 'Old Times' is a man trying to protect his wife from a predatory stranger, it has been diluted by uncertain acting choices...Despite overdetermined design and asymmetrical performances, Pinter’s precise, lyrical language comes through with crystalized, cutting force. Nothing here feels old; the blood flows freshly from new wounds."
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"If you see the play as a profound portrait of a permanent human condition, it’s going to disappoint, which is exactly the trap Douglas Hodge’s production falls into...He has encouraged an excellent cast to play the subtext so broadly that it basically everts the drama, leaving very little sense that feasible humans are involved. Even so, the actors are good enough to make it fun...With neither the history nor the hostility very mysterious, the sum on this one-plus-one-plus-one plot is zero."
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"By all rights, the production should have been good...It is, however, almost perfectly awful, and I think it’s safe to say that the fault belongs to Douglas Hodge, the director, who apparently supposes that the right way to stage 'Old Times' is to camp it up."
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"Hodge and company play the humor over the menace, which mostly works in this brief drama...Detracting from the whole is that set, which is framed by an abstract swirl of circles, and some introductory music by Thom Yorke that nearly had me bolting from the theater before the proceedings got under way. Once they did however, I was hooked. I only wish I could figure out who was reeling me in."
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"The work is blurry and up for grabs...The pleasures of the production come from watching three excellent actors confidently wind through the words, pauses and poses. Anna tells Deeley, 'You have a lovely casserole.' She means wife, but the mind and tongue play tricks. So does Pinter. It’s easy to get mixed up watching his puzzling stew, er, play. In the end, you’re somehow satisfied though you don’t know exactly what you’ve eaten."
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"The Roundabout Theater Company’s Broadway revival of 'Old Times' can’t possibly miss. Harold Pinter’s three-handed battle for sexual dominance is an incredibly sexy play, properly cast here with three incredibly sexy performers: Clive Owen, Kelly Reilly and Eve Best. Director Douglas Hodge has made some curious production choices, but once the erotic games begin, you hardly notice that the writer’s signature pauses and ominous silences have been trimmed."
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"Audience response will depend largely on the appetite for Pinter at his most opaque — or some might even say attenuated...Its fascination is quieter and more cryptic, to the point where some will find it bloodless...This is quite a sexy production that coaxes out both the sensuousness and the sorrow in the text, as well as the needling humor."
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