The Lover/The Collection, The Comedy Theatre, London

Rating: ****/5

Thursday, 24 January 2008 (in previews).

Shamefully, I'd never seen a production of a play by eminent British playwright and recent Nobel winner Harold Pinter until attending a preview performance of the star-studded The Lover/The Collection at the West End's Comedy Theatre. Starring Richard Coyle, Gina McKee (Notting Hill), up-and-coming film actor Charlie Cox, and veteran Brit Timothy West, there is no shortage of acting chops on display.

The first play, The Lover, is one of those plays with a twist that carries its game on for a bit too long. But its leads, Richard Coyle and Gina McKee, do the best they can with the material, and they bring out the best in some great one-liners, peppering on a layer of sex appeal as well for added measure.

The Collection, a more ambitious play and far more successful play, focuses on the effects of infidelity on a young couple. McKee and Coyle are once again husband and wife (though their characters differ in some ways from their respective roles in The Lover), while Charlie Cox takes on the role of the lover and Timothy West that of the lover's hilariously stodgy older friend and flatmate.

The two plays display the wit and wordplay that are signature to Pinter's style, and these particular actors seem to be absolute perfection in their respective roles. Director Jamie Lloyd directs the production briskly amidst serviceable designs from Soutra Gilmour. Special note should be given to music and sound designers Ben and Max Ringham, who provide an appropriately jazzy vibes-and-bass-punctuated score. 

The moment where the production hits the most spot-on note comes at the end of The Collection. The final moment of the play, which could very easily have ended the evening on a decisive note, without the question mark thusly deserved, but instead Pinter leaves us with a menacing look on McKee's face that leaves an audience pondering the mysteries of love and relationships long after the close of the curtain, a feeling sadly missing from much of today's new plays.