Ovation Fellows are current students or recent alumni from Los Angeles area universities. Fellows are paired with a Mentor, currently serving as an Ovation Award voter, and see productions and meet artists around Greater Los Angeles throughout the year. Their articles, posted on LAStageBlog, are intended to be their personal responses to their experiences, and not as critical reviews or representing the views of LA Stage Alliance.
Aubrey Canfield is an Ovation Fellow from California State University Northridge.
Going to the theatre these days has become more than an evening out for me. I approach each production as if it were a lesson, an opportunity for me to learn something. I spend, sometimes unsuccessfully, a good portion of the time deciphering and analyzing everything I can. Perhaps it makes me feel better if I can most accurately identify what the playwright or the director was trying to convey.
To no surprise, when my mentor and I went to the Odyssey Theatre’s presentation of Pinter’s No Man’s Land, I found my seat and I began the task of trying to find that hidden message and overall theme. Honestly, I was having a difficult time nailing it down. My opinion of Spooner kept changing and then there was all that drinking; what did it mean? At intermission I read the director’s notes two or three times through and then frantically scribbled my thoughts into my note pad. Cryptic questions such as “mortality? Should I trust him? A lot of drinking…”
Still I had come to no definite conclusion and throughout the second act I continued my quest. Without even realizing it, however, something began to happen. I stopped dissecting and started watching. The actors were drawing me in; I was captivated. There was a tension and anxiety and although I couldn’t pin down any one motive I was feeling something. Once the play ended, to rousing applause, I released a big sigh and a “wow.”
I had the opportunity to meet with Director Michael Peretzian after the performance. My head was spinning; I wanted to know what the relationships were, why were the two young guys so angry, and what the heck was with all the drinking? Mr. Peretzian was patient with my scattered ramblings. After trying to make sense of my notes I was able to put together a few coherent questions about the play’s meaning, I wanted affirmation that my interpretations were correct; can you tell I’m a student?
After I had gotten out my first questions Mr. Peretzian stopped me saying, “You know Pinter would be very upset if he knew we were talking about this.” It took me a minute to realize my mistake. I suddenly saw that all of my analyzing had taken away from the one thing Pinter wanted his audience to do: experience. Peretzian went on to explain we all have secrets and with these characters we never know what they’ve seen in their lives; we are just seeing this one moment. Maybe they are best friends and maybe they are mortal enemies, or perhaps they have never met each other. We aren’t meant to know. Peretzian said it’s the things left unsaid that create anxiety and danger, and make us feel something.
It was a shock to suddenly sit back, stop questioning and just be; it was then I think I got what Pinter was trying to tell me. It’s not that we always have to know the answers, because in life we may never figure out the answers. We are constantly swimming in this no-man’s-land until the end of our days.
A seasoned and mature cast along with the experience and wisdom of Michael Peretzian, the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble presents Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land, playing through Dec. 13.
