Thursday’s performance of Harold Pinter’s Old Times was met with a classically Pinteresque reaction: a brief pause followed by thunderous applause.

The play, directed by Theater Department Chair Paul Moser, takes place in the claustrophobic farmhouse of a middle-aged English couple, Deeley (College senior Tom Curtin) and Kate (College senior Lisa Maley). When Kate’s old friend, Anna (College senior Sarah Degni), comes to visit, the three of them begin rehashing the past, struggling to gain control over one another and over their own memories.

The actors’ performances were all high-caliber and they wove together plot developments with subtle nuances of tone and body language. The trio was particularly good at slowly building uneasiness, which proved to be both frustrating and entertaining for the audience. “It created a lot of tension,” said College senior Georgia Wall, “but it wasn’t overdramatized. All three of the actors have matured enormously.”

“Definitely those three are the most killer cast. I’m going to have to think about the play though. I’m a little confused about the story,” said Sally Kintner, OC ’07.

Indeed, the play grows quite complicated as it explores the innermost lives of the three characters. Early on, it is clear that all three are serving as unreliable narrators of their own experiences. By the end of the show, it is largely up to the audience to decide what actually happened to whom, what was fantasy and where to draw the line between fiction and reality.

“The funny thing about Pinter’s work is that it’s like [an Alfred] Hitchcock play but without the exposition. The audience’s minds are very busy,” said Moser. “But there is a logic underneath.”

“It makes me think a lot,” said Degni of her experience as a performer in Old Times. “Depending on how you play it, the script can be totally inaccessible. But what people relate to are the emotional lives of the characters. The play provides you with everything you need.”

The weakest point in the production, and the only factor preventing total immersion into the story, was the actors’ difficulty with accents. Though aided by a dialect class taught by Professor Matthew Wright, the effort to maintain a believable British accent must have been Herculean, given the small cast size. During the longer and more emotional monologues, slight lapses into American speech patterns were somewhat jarring.

“It’s hard when words aren’t thinking with you,” said Degni. “And it did slow me down. But it was a strong key into the characters. It took on a life of its own.”

The production space in Little Theater was suitably antiseptic, thanks to the chilly blue lighting design, done by College senior Mike McGee, and the bare, IKEA-esque set. The costumes also enhanced the play, with Deeley and Kate dressed in identical color schemes in the first act, while Anna donned threatening black lace. Those small touches, as well as the lovingly faithful treatment of the script, added up to a thoughtful and intimate production.