Harold Pinter (post 2): Why were his plays like Old Times difficult for even him to understand? Because he wrote in multiple reality, the perspective of multiple personality?

In his Nobel Prize lecture, Pinter says, “There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing…can be both true and false…there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art…

“Most of my plays are engendered by a line, a word or an image…The first line of Old Times is ‘Dark.’ I had no further information…[but soon I saw] “A man…and a woman…Who are they talking about? But I then see, standing at the window, a woman…her hair dark.

“It’s a strange moment…characters who up to that moment have had no existence. What follows is fitful, uncertain, even hallucinatory…The author…is not welcomed by the characters…You certainly can’t dictate to them…people with an individual sensibility of their own…you are unable to change, manipulate or distort…” (1, pp. 18-20).

Three Interpretations of Old Times (via Wikipedia)

“One interpretation of the play is that all three characters were at one time real living people. Deeley met Anna first and slept with her, then [he] later met Kate… Deeley began dating Kate, and Kate…killed Anna…and Kate then killed him, too. Once he was dead, Kate's mind took over…She has lived the past 20 years in a fictional world where Anna and Deeley love her instead of each other.

“Another interpretation is that Kate and Anna are different personalities of the same person, Kate being the prominent one…Deeley cried…when he discovered Kate's mental issue…Kate "killed" Anna for Deeley's sake. 20 years later, she tells him that Anna is returning, and he does all he can to keep Kate from allowing Anna back into her life, ultimately succeeding by the end of the play, when Kate kills Anna again by recalling the first time she killed her.

“A third interpretation is that the whole play takes place in Deeley's subconscious id. Kate is, in fact, not Deeley's wife but a representation of the cold, distant mother whom he could woo but never please. Anna represents complete sexual freedom—but to his consternation, although Anna seems to be attracted to him at first, she turns out to be wearing Kate's underwear and is much more interested with Kate than with Deeley. Kate awards Deeley one rare smile, which she refuses to bestow on Anna, and then proceeds to "kill" both Anna and Deeley with her words. Deeley, realizing he is indeed the "odd man out", is reduced to a sobbing little boy, but Kate still won't comfort him.

“During rehearsals for a Roundabout Theatre Company production in 1984, Anthony Hopkins, who starred, asked Pinter to explain the play's ending. Pinter responded, "I don't know. Just do it” (2).

1. Harold Pinter. “Art, Truth and Politics” (2005), in Nobel Lectures: 20 Years of the Nobel Prize for Literature Lectures. Cambridge UK, Icon Books, 2007.

2. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Times