Two plays penned in the ‘70s by towering British playwrights opened in New York last week, each with vastly different approaches to tackling the nature of sexuality and desire.

Clive Owen stars in Harold Pinter’s Old Times (which opened on Broadway October 6 at the American Airlines Theatre), an enigmatic drama centered on a love triangle that leaves viewers with more questions than answers.



Caryl Churchill’s seminal play Cloud Nine (which opened October 5 at the Atlantic Theatre Company), on the other hand, spells out more explicit truths about everything from unrequited love to masturbation than you’re ever likely to hear in one sitting.
Roundabout Theatre Company’s production, directed by Douglas Hodge (who’s also an actor, last seen on Broadway in La Cage Aux Folles), makes clear, not so subtly and from the get-go, that we’re likely someplace where space and time are less than fixed. This is largely thanks to designer Christine Jones’ cosmic backdrop and what appears to be a large block of ice in the middle of the stage. (Original music from Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke helps, too.) In the end, the story swirls with questions: Is everyone on stage real? Or is anyone imaginary/ already dead? Who takes a bath in the middle of a quasi dinner party?
Churchill’s characters take the opposite approach, declaring their desires straightforwardly and with abandon at every opportunity. The playwright eschews subtext for a radical honesty that is often both hilarious and deeply affecting.
The second half takes place in 1979 (when the play was written), though as the program notes, only 25 years have passed for the characters. We find Betty (now a grandmother, played by Bloom), Edward (Perfetti), and his sister Victoria (Owens, in a role played by a baby doll in the first act) living in London. The siblings become variously involved with Lin (Steele), a lesbian divorcée with a young, pigtailed daughter (played with great range by Thorrell). Dugan plays Edward’s on-again, off-again lover, and Sanders plays Victoria’s estranged husband Martin.
The shuffling of players, including their cross-dressing, lends integral color to Churchill’s exploration of kinship, gender politics, and shifting ideologies. In their grappling with what they want and from whom, and whether they are allowed to want it and by whom, there are levels are truth that are likely to astound.
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Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar (photos: joan marcus, doug hamilton)