It’s an obviously promising recipe for an evening out. First, take Sir Ian McKellen, at 77 still treading the boards in style. Then, add another distinguished theatrical knight, Patrick Stewart, 76, whose long classical career has eclipsed his earlier “Star Trek” fame. Mix them well together in a play seen as Pinter classic, “No Man’s Land” from 1975. Stir well: the two Sirs have already done it to acclaim on Broadway and on a short UK tour in this very same production by Sean Matthias which is now showing in London.The result is a satisfying mix of actorly genteelness, Pinteresque menace and humor as dry as the drinks the main characters constantly knock back while gently mocking and challenging each other.Pinter of course spices it with humor. There are times when we laugh at the lines such as the famous “Champagne before lunch” quips. The audience is not sure if some remarks are meant to be funny, meaningful, terrifying or maybe all of these. A little laughter helps the medicine to go down but there is ultimately a bleakness. Perhaps it is lurking in the slightly distracting, rustling Hampstead Heath trees shown on a film just behind the set windows.The depressing lines about gloomy daylight fading, “all we have left is the English language,” and that one about the turning out of the light all fit the theme of death and last supper: “You know what it’s like when you’re in a room with the light on and then suddenly the light goes out? I'll show you. It's like this.” (Blackout).Hirst (Stewart) gets progressively drunk, tired and emotional as the day withers. It looks like it’s all over for him at the interval.The Nobel-winning Pinter is so sacrosanct a writer that few dare query what on earth is going on in the second half. It’s hardly a plot spoiler because it is one of the most- discussed and biggest reverses in dramatic history: It’s a new day and Hirst bounces back like a new man. Is this a resurrection from the dead? It transpires that he has no recollection of the humiliation that came before. Stewart plays down the part, as well he might, given that his affluent and lonely character is apparently coming to the end of his days and fondly looking back without anger.McKellen has an easier time as Spooner, although he seems a little too polished to be a convincing bohemian professional tramp. At least his suit has seen better days, his pony-tail is pure Boho poet and his tatty tennis shoes are a definition of down-at-heel. He well conveys Spooner’s bafflement at the twisted plot. As Pinter plays God with his strange turn of events, the confusion is surely shared by many in the audience. Are the two old men long-time friends or strangers? Are the other characters manservants, spivs or lovers? Damien Molony and Owen Teale come across more as comedians than merchants of menace.It seems like they all know their destiny, which as bleak as it gets: “You are in no man’s land. Which never moves, which never changes, which never grows older, but which remains forever, icy and silent.” Given the slow and scary fadeout that follows, it is a miracle the audience doesn’t sit transfixed for five minutes in a state of shocked silence.Still, the Pinter recipe mentioned at the start is satisfying enough to inspire prolonged applause. McKellen leaves us wondering who Spooner really is: some guy that his host picked up in a Chalk Farm pub, or a former Oxbridge classmate who has much more talent than his famous companion.There is a certain chutzpah in putting this show on in the very theatre where Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud originally made the play their own. McKellen and Stewart are old friends - the former even helped officiate at the latter’s wedding; they did a fine “Waiting for Godot” too. This closeness makes them a fine double act, which also adds a knowingness to the dynamic on whether the characters onstage are rivals, friends or foes.“No Man’s Land” continues at Wyndham’s Theatre until December 17.
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