The Pinter Project

For any actor, there are a handful of names that loom large over theater in the last century. Samuel Beckett, Anton Chekhov, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, George Bernard Shaw, Henrik Ibsen and Eugene O’Neill are icons of the stage that stand immortal in their plays and writings. However, when one of those august individuals reaches out to an actor to personally request him to perform their writing, that is a career-altering event.

This was the fortuitous and surreal circumstances film and stage actor Julian Sands found himself in 2005. Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning playwright of such works as “The Birthday Party,” “No Man’s Land,” “Betrayal,” “The Homecoming” and the “The Caretaker,” had transformed the theatrical landscape with his use of spare yet biting language and dialogue with characters that reflect the most treacherous aspects of humanity. Pinter reached out to Sands to perform a reading of his poetry at the St. Stephen Walbrook Church of England in London. Due to Pinter’s complications with esophageal cancer, he couldn’t perform the engagement himself. Sands agreed to the reading. However, he had no idea the effect it would have on his life.

“At the time it was a very flattering thing, but also very intimidating,” says Sands, “the great Harold Pinter, Nobel laureate and a personal hero of mine, so to work with him in such close proximity was such a great thing.”

Sands rehearsed with Pinter going through the rhythm and flow of the playwright’s indelible voice in his poetry. Sands was only familiar with Pinter’s dramatic work but said he was astonished by the depth, power and intimacy that he revealed in his poems. And after the one-night engagement at the church, Sands didn’t think much of the poetry and the playwright until Pinter’s death in 2008.

Out of reverence to his theatrical hero, Sands began doing tribute performances of the poetry reading weaving in extracts from obituaries and other appreciations that flooded the news at the time. Sands’ tribute performances of Pinter’s poetry sparked the interest of fellow stage and film actor John Malkovich who wanted to combine more of Pinter’s work to create a complete performance piece.

“We reexamined all of his written material, his prose, his interviews and we set out to create the story of the life and work of Harold Pinter told through his work and words,” says Sands, “but above all we were looking to create an entertainment which wasn’t difficult because his writing his immensely entertaining.”

Sands and Malkovich’s labors produced “Julian Sands: A Celebration of Harold Pinter” which premiered at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival which he will be performing at the Historic Asolo Theater Feb. 6 and 7 at 7:30 p.m..

Sands uses a bare stage and striking pool of light as his arena to deliver Pinter’s story via the playwright’s own words as well those closes to the influential playwright. Touring around the world since Edinburgh in 2011, Sands his creatively fueled by the power of the late dramatist’s prose.

“I think my continual discovery of new meanings, intentions, nuances, atmospheres and feelings in this show continues to fulfill me,” says Sands. “It’s an immense privilege to bring his work to people afresh, and I have found the music in Harold’s voice and I have a great communal experience with the audience.”