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Date(s) - 26/07/2024
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
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by Harold Pinter
Directed by Ava Hunt
Cast: Maggie Ford, Lewis Hancock, David Frederickson
Tickets from: A Slight Ache
“A poignant and captivating portrayal, showcasing the timeless relevance of Pinter’s work”
On the surface everything appears to be perfect in Edward and Flora’s life…
A Slight Ache, tells the story of an older couple living in a rural area, whose marriage is disrupted by an external force – a Matchseller – their lives will never be the same again.
After a distinguished career spanning decades, Maggie Ford (playing Flora), a well respected actor based in Derbyshire is set to return to the stage at the age of 84. This team of local Derbyshire actors brings this funny, disturbing, and powerful play to the stage, beautifully celebrating Pinter’s fascination with the interloper.
The performance lasts one hour and will be accompanied by a short Q&A with the director and cast.
Review from the Fringe Festival 2024 at Buxton:
A SLIGHT ACHE BY HAROLD PINTER – Ava Hunt Theatre
The play gives us a blank canvas in the form of a mute matchseller onto which both main characters, Flora and Edward, project a persona from their own lives and each tries to dominate him. This leads to an intriguing surprise ending.
The Nobel prize winning Harold Pinter is the ‘Marmite’ playwright of the English stage. His style is not for all tastes but the sparse plot of ‘A Slight Ache’ is leavened by the excellent acting of Maggie Ford and Lewis Hancock who dead-pan the humorous opportunities in the play. It is after all billed as a ‘tragicomedy’.
The plot centres around the growing estrangement of a long-married couple who superficially have a perfect prosperous middle class life together. The tensions between them are sometimes trivial – the clanking of cutlery, the exaggerated drama of hunting a wasp – but because of their closeness and familiarity small issues become serious and threatening as the husband, Edward, tries to dominate. This is a similar theme to Edward Albee’s ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf’ but where Albee has high drama and explosive temper Pinter has pauses and meaningful silences. The play is somewhere between psychological warfare and a comedy of manners.
The strain in Edward and Flora’s relationship is neatly brought out by the catalyst of an outsider who becomes entrapped in their confrontations. This part, ‘The Matchseller’, is played silently but expressively by David Frederickson. A street matchseller would have been a dated concept even in the late 1950’s when the play was written but the fact that he sells nothing throughout the play means that we can project our own motives onto him. Edward is suspicious and just a little afraid, Flora associates him with a dark episode from her past. As Arthur Miller once said when asked what Willy Loman was selling (in Death of a Salesman) he answered, ‘He is selling himself’.
You won’t leave humming any tunes but the play gives much food for thought. And, a bit like the ‘Mousetrap’ don’t tell anyone the ending.
Further performances on 12th and 18th July.
Brian Kirman