No Man's Land

A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

No Man's Land

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  4m

In an old house in North West London, two sexagenarians, with the acerbic aid of two younger men, bring forth their realities, memories, inclinations, and claims for recognition.

Image: Tristram Kenton

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    4m
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Experimental
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary
In No Mans Land, two elderly writers, having met in a London pub, continue drinking and talking into the night. All might be well, until the return home of two younger men. Their relationships are exposed, with menace and hilarity, in one of Pinter's most entertaining plays.
History
No Mans Land premiered at the Old Vic Theatre in London by the National Theatre on April 23, 1975. 
Cast Attributes
HIRST - a man in his sixties
SPOONER - a man in his sixties
FOSTER - a man in his thirties
BRIGGS - a man in his forties
  • Time Period 1970s
  • Setting The drawing room of Hirst's residence. 
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Duration 90 minutes
  • Cautions
    • Alcohol

Media

"[No Mans Land is] about precisely what its title suggests...the sense of being caught in some mysterious limbo between life and death, between a world of brute reality and one of fluid uncertainty. ... the play is a masterly summation of all the themes that have long obsessed Pinter: the fallibility of memory, the co-existence in one man of brute strength and sensitivity, the ultimate unknowability of women, the notion that all human contact is a battle between who and whom. ... It is in no sense a dry, mannerist work but a living, theatrical experience full of rich comedy in which one speech constantly undercuts another." - Michael Billington, The Guardian

"
Like many classic Pinter plays, No Man's Land is about the reaction to an intruder who threatens the status quo ante. The subtlety that gradually emerges in this play, though, is that Spooner, the seedy Prufrockian failed poet, is the alter ego of his host, the moneyed litterateur, Hirst, and that his predatory intrusion also represents an abortive attempt to reconnect Hirst to life and to his creativity and to save him from the bitter stalemate of old age. Mysterious, bleakly beautiful and very funny, No Man's Land demonstrates that though it may take a little while to latch on to the laws of Pinterland, it is well worth the effort." - Paul Taylor, The Independent 

Videos

  • No Man's Land - Cort Theatre youtube thumbnail

    No Man's Land - Cort Theatre

  • No Man's Land (1978) youtube thumbnail

    No Man's Land (1978)

Photos

  • No Man's Land

    Image: Tristram Kenton

Music

  • Musical Style N/A (Not a musical)
  • Vocal DemandsN/A (Not a musical)
  • Chorus Size N/A (Not a musical)

Licensing & Materials

  • Licensing available for professional groups only. Some restrictions apply.

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Authors

Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter (1930-2008) was born in London on October 10, 1930. He lived with Antonia Fraser from 1975 until his death on Christmas Eve 2008. (They were married in 1980).

After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama, he worke ...

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