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Celebrations

‘I’m talking about love, mate! True fucking love!’ So says Lambert unconvincingly in Pinter’s play Celebrations. The play revolves around three couples and a wedding anniversary, but as far as I can see the play doesn’t have an ounce of either love or celebration. I must confess, I did not enjoy watching Celebrations. The actors play their parts excellently and with polish,    but Pinter’s play itself is deliberately awful: full of repetitive dialogue, a smarmy script, awkward silences and cringeworthy characters. And cringe I did. This is a difficult piece of theatre to watch; how does one identify with a play which goes about destroying any sympathy between the characters? The married couples are obnoxious; they swear, they insult each other, they make dark allusions to past affairs. They are full of vulgar, pointless remarks, delivered excellently by a very well-versed cast. The sisters Prue and Julie are excellently acted by Beth Williams and Cathy Thomas. The couples celebrating an anniversary speak in a chav dialect that would challenge any Oxford student with a plummy accent. Vulgar humour frequently bubbles to the surface of the script, and the contrast between deadpan delivery of lines and hysterical laughter is often excellent. The skilled direction also rings true, with the actors bringing Pinter’s often ambiguous, difficult lines to life.However the cast sometimes overplayed their lines, creating a grotesque rather than wry take on their characters. A little too much false laughter and loudmouthed behaviour tips the couples from chavs on a night out to the Beckhams on one of their bad days. Having ripped apart any feelings of kindness or well-wishing, the couples then toast each other. The clink of glass upon glass and the ‘Cheers!’ that follows rings hollow in the audience’s ears. Despite the actors’ incredible performances and polish, this is a hollow play, which gives its audience little cause to celebrate.By Elen Griffiths

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