Old Times
Old Times

Old Times (1971)

Old Times

Harold Pinter

Play script

English

A thriving film-maker and his wife are visited in the country by the latter's onetime flatmate. What follows is a fierce battle for possession of the withdrawn, cryptically private visitor. The weapons used include snatches of popular song, physical intimacies and, above all, memory.

Browse productions of Old Times in the database

Date of Composition: 1971 - December 1971   Confidence Level  

Linked Works

Exiles

Old Times draws upon James Joyce's 1918 play, both in its subject matter and form.

Linked Places

Taormina, Sicily (Type of place: Location (within the fiction))

Taormina, Sicily

In Old Times, Anna claims to live in a villa just outside Taormina, and Deeley claims to have been there as part of a supposed career in film.


Brompton Road, London (Type of place: Location (within the fiction))

Brompton Road, London

In Old Times, Deeley tells Anna he remembers seeing her in the Wayfarers Tavern on the Brompton Road. There is no record of a real pub with that name in that vicinity.


Publishers

Methuen on (1971)

Characters

Deeley (Age: early forties, Male)

Kate (Old Times) (Age: early forties, Female)

Anna (Old Times) (Age: early forties, Female)

Resources

Full text on Drama Online (URL)

Type: Script

External Link: https://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/plays/old-times-iid-129844

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Sources

William Baker and John C. Ross's biographical history of Harold Pinter's work

William Baker and John C. Ross, Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History (London: British Library; New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2005)

Academic book

In the Chronology entry for 1971 Baker and Ross report that Pinter was 'Writing Old Times' (p. xxxii).

The Guardian Website

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/jan/31/old-times-pinter-theatre-review

URL

The summary of the play provided appears in Michael Billington's review of Ian Rickson's 2013 production of the play at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London: Old Times - Review, Billington for The Guardian, 31/01/2013 [accessed 14 November 2017].