Critical Essay | Critical Review by Mark Ford

Critical Review by Mark Ford

SOURCE: Ford, Mark. “Oh My True Love.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 4784 (9 December 1994): 21.

In the following review, Ford praises Landscape as “one of the most resonant of Harold Pinter's shorter pieces.”

Landscape is one of the most resonant of Harold Pinter's shorter pieces. Although written for the stage, it was originally performed on the radio in 1968 because the censors of the about-to-be-dissolved Lord Chamberlain's office objected to the play's language—in particular Pinter's use of the phrase “Fuck-all”. In fact, Landscape is one of Pinter's dreamier performances, and is certainly less viscerally shocking than anything he had written up to that point. Nearly all of his earlier plays build towards specific and irrevocable acts of aggression which lead to the pivotal characters being either appropriated—like Stanley in The Birthday Party—or expelled, like Davies in The Caretaker. In Landscape, however, the urge towards violence is denied any active...
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