“Pinter’s play bamboozled some critics when it premiered in 1975. It remains a conundrum. In London Classic Theatre’s production, those trademark pauses, the barbed anecdotes and the undercurrents of menace quickly come to seem normal, as if real life were the imposter. Despite the grandeur of Bek Palmer’s Hampstead front-room set, no one in No Man’s Land appears comfortable. Palmer’s set curves behind a circular carpet from which homeowner Hirst, ensconced in one of those armchairs, holds court. In a wonderful turn by Moray Treadwell, he veers between pompous assurance and angry, frightened forgetfulness. Padding around him, and sometimes invading this space, are the fey, if cruel Foster (Joel Macey), the sandal-wearing, prissy Spooner (Nicholas Gasson) and the menacing Briggs (Graham O’Mara), whose measured movements – a smoothing of his jacket, a slow arching of his neck – suggest a barely suppressed aggression.”
Will Ramsey – The Stage ****