Verbal Tapdances, British style.
It is not just the British national addition to crossword puzzles which spawns so many superb code-crackers, but also the addiction to speaking elliptically. In the U.K. every conversation becomes an exercise in deciphering coded language. At ACT Theatre Sex, Trouble and Taxi #274 by Harold Pinter illustrates this poignantly.
Although I find the violence and verbal aggression in some of his longer plays difficult to take, the seven short sketches, titled Sex, Trouble and Taxi #274, which opened on Friday night, were actually amusing, interesting and blessedly short. Directed by Jane Kaplan, with a simple set and staging, the scripts made the show.
Trouble in the Works draws on a great staple of British humor-negotiations between the posh boss, and the shop steward- the script was brilliant amusing absurdity. The Factory Owner, played by David Pichette, with a reasonable accent, was good; however, Darragh Kennan, was misguided as to which accent to use. Instead of a Yorkshire accent, he used a mild Cockney accent, with a few Northern vowels, so a lot of the laughs didn’t come off right.
The three best sketches were Special Offer, Applicant and Victoria Station. Special Offer, written in 1959 before the sexual revolution, is not as dated as it might seem, as it dealt with–horror of horrors- women paying for heterosexual sex. Mariel Neto’s long monologue was superbly delivered. Although Applicant drew on Pinter’s real life experiences as a guinea pig in a psychiatric study (in the 50’s) its subtext is that of the psychological rape of a job applicant, by a sadistic interviewer. Anyone who has ever had one of those cat-and-mouse job interviews, will enjoy it. The pièce de la résistance was Victoria Station. A taxi company dispatcher and a taxi driver miscommunicate, scaring the bejesus out of the dispatcher because the taxi driver does not know his way around London and there is suspicion that he is psychotic and possibly a murderer.
There was more laughter than tears and if you are a Pinter skeptic, as I am, this may be the one evening of Pinter you will enjoy. Corner Conversations and Matters of State, another evening of short sketches by Pinter runs from Aug. 21st to the 24th.
Sex, Trouble and Taxi #274 Short Sketches by Harold Pinter, ACT Theatre, 700 E. Union St. Downtown Seattle. 8:30, through Aug. 23. www.acttheatre.org