Night of Cocktails, Dresses, And Torture: It's Party Time
Bailey Triggs
Issue date: 10/29/02 Section: Arts
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This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night (Oct. 31-Nov 2) you are invited to a party in Goodwin Theater. Or, more precisely, two one act plays by Harold Pinter set at a party: "Party Time" and "A New World Order." I recently had the opportunity to speak with two of the actors in the play: Scott Troost ('05) and Erin Kinney ('05).
Tripod: So, what's this play about?
Erin: Okay, basic explanation: it's a very high-class party – all the high-ranking officials are there…
Scott: …and their lady friends…
E: …yet at the same time, characters refer to something going on in the streets. You can say that there are marital troubles, murderers, gossips, power struggles, ego issues…
S: That about explains it.
T: These are two separate one act plays, right?
S: Yeah, but the way it's done, one flows right into the other.
E: They fit so well that you wouldn't realize that they were written in different decades.
T: How do you transition between them?
E: Well, honestly, that's something that you'll just have to wait to see…because it's so damn cool!
T: Oh, okay, mystery – very exciting.
S: Nice, Erin.
E: No, actually, it really is a big point in the show.
T: So, you'd say this play was a social critique of sorts of high society?
E&S: Definitely.
S: The play is almost making caricatures of high society.
E: High society, but more than just that: people in power…
S: …social elite…
E: …government, and ethics. The dialogue sometimes makes these people extremely ridiculous, other times just creepy, other times, you're confused.
S: Pinter is a writer who includes so much subtext in his plays.
E: It's all these little, little things.
T: Do you think this is a play that might be hard to "get" for the audience?
E: Not really, it was much harder for the actors to get. We did all the hard figuring out stuff.
S: I think it's a play that offers the audience the chance to be a detective of sorts- really offers the opportunity to make discoveries about the characters throughout the show.
Tripod: So, what's this play about?
Erin: Okay, basic explanation: it's a very high-class party – all the high-ranking officials are there…
Scott: …and their lady friends…
E: …yet at the same time, characters refer to something going on in the streets. You can say that there are marital troubles, murderers, gossips, power struggles, ego issues…
S: That about explains it.
T: These are two separate one act plays, right?
S: Yeah, but the way it's done, one flows right into the other.
E: They fit so well that you wouldn't realize that they were written in different decades.
T: How do you transition between them?
E: Well, honestly, that's something that you'll just have to wait to see…because it's so damn cool!
T: Oh, okay, mystery – very exciting.
S: Nice, Erin.
E: No, actually, it really is a big point in the show.
T: So, you'd say this play was a social critique of sorts of high society?
E&S: Definitely.
S: The play is almost making caricatures of high society.
E: High society, but more than just that: people in power…
S: …social elite…
E: …government, and ethics. The dialogue sometimes makes these people extremely ridiculous, other times just creepy, other times, you're confused.
S: Pinter is a writer who includes so much subtext in his plays.
E: It's all these little, little things.
T: Do you think this is a play that might be hard to "get" for the audience?
E: Not really, it was much harder for the actors to get. We did all the hard figuring out stuff.
S: I think it's a play that offers the audience the chance to be a detective of sorts- really offers the opportunity to make discoveries about the characters throughout the show.