Compare and Contrast

Boy, was I angry! More than four years ago in these pages I wrote an article entitled, "Ruminations on the End of the Season." In it I mourned the state of theatre criticism at the end of a season (1996-1997) in which the critics demolished all Broadway offerings, behaving in a way that made them look positively bent on self-destruction (biting the hand and all that).

A chance occurrence prompted me to revisit that article today (you should too): I happen to read Donald Lyons' New York Post review of a pair of Pinter short plays within an hour of reading Ben Brantley's New York Times review. The points of view were so diametrically opposed as to bring to mind the absurdity of the reviews of that long ago season. The contrast is almost comical -- although it's made less painful by the fact that these pieces are part of a limited (and presumably sold-out) run. It helps underline the fact that you can't rely on the critics to tell you what to see. To prove that point I thought I'd repeat the exercise I tried four years ago: to compare and contrast these two reviews.

The plays in question are Celebration and The Room, written and directed by Harold Pinter and produced as part of the Harold Pinter Festival portion of the Lincoln Center Festival. What makes this pairing interesting is that The Room was Pinter's first produced play, while Celebration was written in the last few years.

Brantley treats Pinter's work reverently, like a universally acknowledged work of art, the many beautiful facets of which are meant to be studied and revelled in -- although these two plays are by no means his Sistene Chapel ("Not that it ranks with a fully shaped masterwork like The Homecoming, the festival's ravishing highlight of last weekend."). Lyons', on the other hand, behaves almost irreverantly, acting the part of the debunker, the poo-poo-er. You can see these trends right from the start, with the titles:

Brantley: "Pinter's Silences, Richly Eloquent"
Lyons: "Pinter Pair Give No Reason for 'Celebration'"

About the contrast between the youthful writer of The Room and the mature dramatist of Celebration Brantley waxes:

Even in his mid-20's, it seems, Mr. Pinter had found his voice and rhythms; more remarkably, he has held on to them. Watching The Room... and Celebration... you feel no comparative wistfulness, on the one hand, or embarrassment, on the other. You don't begin to think, "Oh, what a shame that he's lost that young freshness and audacity." Or, "What a clumsy, earnest lad he once was." The man who wrote Celebration