Family Voices

[starlight]

Does anyone have a recording of this radio play, where Caught On a Train alumni Dame Peggy and MK play mother and son?



No? Well, our luck is in. I found it on this Mexican site.

Caramba!

(I bet Lynne already had it )

[Lynnedean]

(I bet Lynne already had it )

Yep - a recording from the radio from way back. It's not something I'd listen to more than once; forgot I had it. Pinter is far from my favourite playwright; Family Voices is a perfect example of why!

[starlight]

(I bet Lynne already had it )

Yep - a recording from the radio from way back. It's not something I'd listen to more than once; forgot I had it. Pinter is far from my favourite playwright; Family Voices is a perfect example of why!

Heh! Well, you've seen my opinion of No Man's Land

However, we do these things in service of completism, and The Voice.

[amiga]

Great find. Anything new with MK is so welcome, even if it is Pinter.

Would love to know what other treasures you have hidden, Lynne

Amiga

[Wolesley]

If it wasn't MK's mellifluous voice, I'd be tearing my hair out listening to this... I don't know what to call it.
Why on earth is Pinter even a thing (as the young folk say these days)?!!! Why is his stuff performed? Is it the theatrical equivalent of the emperor's new clothes? I do attend a fair bit of theatre, I'm no philistine, but the merit of Pinter's stuff is beyond me.
Parts of it were as literary as Dr. Seuss.

That being said, thanks so much for posting the link, Sue!
His Voice is wonderful.
Did you hear him say, "vagabondage"?!!! Wheee!

Lesley

[kitchentease]

If it wasn't MK's mellifluous voice, I'd be tearing my hair out listening to this...

Totally agree - this coming from someone who loves No Man's Land and not because of Foster's trousers.

[amiga]

If it wasn't MK's mellifluous voice, I'd be tearing my hair out listening to this...

Totally agree - this coming from someone who loves No Man's Land and not because of Foster's trousers.

[starlight]

Well that'll teach me NOT to bounce too much before I've listened past the first few minutes.

Fair dos: interpreting a thing like this must call for just a LITTLE bit of love for every sentence, otherwise it wouldn't sound as classy as it does. And Mr Velvet Voice delivers beautifully, as do rest of cast. But this is one depressing heap of .

Pinter is appropriately named, IMHO: I'd like to bet he'd sunk a few pints when he wrote this masterpiece, and anyone who's listening to it now will wish they had a pint or two inside them. The characters sound like the spawn of Eeyore - not that Eeyore would sink low enough to reproduce . Well, maybe after a few pints, he would.

I'd like to know: is this sort of scenario a Pinter trademark? I spy some commonality with No Man's Land: lithe-bodied young chaps, sharing houses with old blokes in seedy rooms with dubious preoccupations...

I'm wondering what trousers MK's character would wear... Impossible to 'hear' the straining seams, but (ha-ha, Lesley!) 'vagabondage' conjures images.

[Wolesley]

It is certainly read and performed with class and dedication.
In 'straining' to assign some depth and significance to the work, I imagined Pinter was trying to present a gradual revelation of each character's self-delusion of their own...what? Integrity?

So as the play goes on we are meant to understand that the son and mother, despite their words of love and devotion, in letters they may have only composed in their heads (and never sent), have treated each other quite badly, and are in fact estranged.
The older man is a repressed homosexual who may not be as self-disciplined as he asserts.
The house that the son is living in may be some sort of group home for the mentally ill?
The Withers family...? No idea.
Can't remember what the very old man said.
And the father may or may not be dead. He says he's not, but then he says he is.

It all seems very Freudian.
Perhaps I'll give it another listen. Along with a pint.

Lesley

[Lynnedean]

Perhaps I'll give it another listen. Along with a pint.

Only a Newcastle Broon with a double whisky chaser will serve, kidda!

[starlight]

Lesley and Lynne listen to Pinter

[Wolesley]

Yep. That's what it will take!

Lesley