Julian Sands spoke at Pollak Theatre on Friday Oct. 18. The renowned actor presented “A Celebration of Harold Pinter,” his own lecture on the famous playwright.
Sands has been in Oscar nominated movies such as “A Room with a View” and various television shows, including “Smallville” and “Dexter.”
It’s easy to see why there would be a celebration of Pinter. The English playwright and actor won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005.
Sands referred to him as the “defining dramatist of the twenty-first century” (though Sands mentioned that, according to Pinter’s widow, Pinter would have given that title to Samuel Beckett). Pinter is definitely considered one of the great playwrights of the era, having written 29 plays and having won countless awards (including a Tony).
Sands came onstage in his suit to a stage that was almost entirely bare, with the exception of a small table with some books and notes for Sands to read from. Sands rarely read from his books and notes. He would hold them up, but mostly, he had the material memorized.
Sara Rimassa, junior English and education major, really enjoyed this aspect of the performance. Rimassa said, “I thought he was great. I mean, he’s so dynamic and just the way he read. I thought, personally, that he was just going to be reading from paper, but he was almost acting and engaging with us personally. It made the time fly by.
Sands’ presentation wasn’t exactly a lecture, but it wasn’t quite a one man show either. It was more of a conversation. The audience was asked to move out of their assigned seats and closer to the stage for the intimate show. Throughout, Sands made eye contact with audience members, helping to engage them in his discussion.
Sands was clearly well-researched for the event. He knew Pinter on a personal level in the last years of his life, but his stories were often marked by a reference to another person in who had a relationship with Pinter (usually Pinter’s wife, Lady Antonia Fraser).
Sands discovered Pinter in high school when he was cast in “The Birthday.” Professor Michael Thomas, Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, first read Harold Pinter as a freshman in college and also saw “A Room with a View” during college. He was a fan of both and enjoyed the event.
Thomas said, “…I feel like there are these ways that the arts in different art forms, whether it’s plays and drama, movies and lit and poetry can come together, but that doesn’t always happen so seamlessly, so fluidly as we saw tonight. He brings together the movement of the actor, the sounds of the actor, but also the poetry, the narrative of the life of Harold Pinter and the great sorrow and love of his marriage, all in this two hour session.”
Though there were gaps in the audience after the intermission of the two hour show, the audience that stayed until the end really seemed to enjoy the show. Meghan Vannote, a junior with an English major and creative writing minor, was not forced by a professor to attend, but simply want to go out of interest. “It was for extra credit, so we didn’t have to go,” Vannote said. Though Sands’ resume may have contributed to her interest. Vannote mentioned that while she didn’t know much about Pinter, “I knew that [Julian Sands] was on ‘Dexter.’”
Rimassa and Vannote both agreed that the presentation made them much more interested in Harold Pinter, whom they weren’t very familiar with beforehand.
After the show, Sands changed out of his suit into a more comfortable t-shirt and jeans and fielded questions from the audience. He was asked many questions about everything from “the Pinter pause” to Pinter’s religious views to how Pinter might view social media. Sands was sure to remind the audience that he was not the definitive source on Pinter and he was simply answering questions to the best of his ability.
For more information on future events from the Center for Performing Arts, check out www.monmouth.edu/arts.
PHOTO TAKEN from baylinartists.com
