Old Times NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (114)
See it if You like Harold Pinter or are a big fan of tastey language
Don't see it if You find plays and films that don't spell themselves out to the audience frustrating.
See it if You can appreciate an intense, three person play with a minimal stage and a lot of nuance.
Don't see it if You have problems concentrating as this play requires your focus and will be very confusing if you're not paying attention.
See it if you like a serious, thinking-required, heavy plays. Also see it if you enjoy quality staging, movement, & acting.
Don't see it if you want a clear cut plot & an easy going theater experience.
See it if want to see a little more than an hour of sexual tension and wonderful acting. Memory and time play another character. Short - interesting.
Don't see it if You don't want to think. Probably many different take-aways from audience members, but at least you'll spend time figuring it out.
See it if You like to ponder. You enjoy great set design.
Don't see it if You don't want to be puzzled. You like simpler material.
See it if you don't need a clear story line. This is more poetry than traditional play.
Don't see it if you need a traditional story.
See it if You love Pinter and like experimental plays that may or may not have a plot.
Don't see it if You need a plot, or dislike Pinter.
See it if you like confusing thought provoking theatre.
Don't see it if you don't like confusing story lines.
Critic Reviews (38)
"The stars of 'Old Times' always look like they’re a second away from having sex. Clive Owen, Eve Best and Kelly Reilly generate such heat, you may need a cold shower after the show. Or maybe just a rub against what looks like a giant icicle on that stage...You may not tell what it all means, if anything, yet the message comes through: Game on!"
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"Watching this tense, suspenseful update of Harold Pinter’s 1971 drama, you might find yourself questioning what that really means. Is the past really what you remember? Is it what you only think you remember...? The play keeps you guessing the whole time. That’s a big part of the fun — if it’s possible to find 'fun' in a play this dark."
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"Unfortunately, the subtextual wrangling gets lost on the big stage. 'Old Times' needs a more intimate house. The language too often floats free of the characters here. Pinter's dazzling non sequiturs don't seem psychologically rooted...Transplanting the delicate weirdness of "Old Times" to Broadway seems absurdist in all the wrong ways."
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"There's really no middle ground when it comes to the late English playwright Harold Pinter. You're either mesmerized by his mysterious, menacing, pause-filled psychological dramas or you find them puzzling, inert and empty -- as I usually do...The cast is excellent...'Old Times' is likely to feel like either an intense roller coaster rush or a dull, nonsensical sketch. Good luck with it."
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"Under the deft direction of Douglas Hodge, 'Old Times' casts its spell from the moment we enter the theater and refuses to relent until we leave...Hodge excels at drawing out the comedy in Pinter's script...This beautiful and bewildering production holds us enthralled from beginning to end."
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"I wonder if, somewhere along the line, someone decided that this brief, highly intimate play simply needed to be blown up to fit the stage of a midsize Broadway house. If so, it represents a major miscalculation on the director's part. He had at his disposal an excellent Pinter text and three highly skilled actors, which alone were enough to guarantee a fascinating, chilling evening in the theatre. The visual and aural distractions diminish the work."
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" Douglas Hodge doesn’t trust the material – or his audience. He has gussied up this minimalist, spare drama with a huge set which overpowers and distracts from the play. The loud, booming music gives an entirely wrong introduction for the play about to be seen...Unfortunately, director Douglas Hodge has made this revival provocative for all the wrong reasons."
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"There is plenty of mystery, and it isn't just the plot, surrounding this revival. Most mysterious is the need for the kind of pretentious, if also a bit distracting, production enhancements that envelope its second revival at the Roundabout...It's good to report, however, that all that high-tech framing doesn't reduce the glow from the actors. Neither does it significantly diminish the suspense in a play that has intrigued audiences since it first opened on Broadway in 1971."
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