No Man's Land at the Gate

Pinter eh - master of the cryptic and the sinister. There's usually malevolence in the air and violence impending. And of course there is always something nasty lurking in the woodshed. But you know what I love about his plays is the way he relishes language. There's never any action of course, just verbal engagement. Don't ask me what this play in the Gate was all about. You had a well-heeled successful poet and a down-at-heel mendicant poet (of a kind that Grogan's used to nurture) and you had an enormous amount of drinking - mostly scotch. You also had the two sinister servants lurking. One poet seemed to lack money while the other seemed to lack the will to write. But what the hell, it was hugely enjoyable and Michael Gambon as the rich poet was a magnificent shambles.