Press night - invitation. Studio 2 for pre-show drinks and noodling networks

The Nuffield Theatre Company's presentation is a contemporary interpretation of Pinter's 1978 play exploring the complex mathematics of infidelity and betrayal.
It is set in the present, beginning in 2009, and regresses to 2000 when the relationships began, tracing a web of infidelity, painful truth and deception.

Miranda Colchester presents Emma about as true to Pinter's intention as I would imagine its possible to get - from the bitter, haunted woman who meets her lover in the pub at the beginning of the play (the end of the story) to the fashionable, light and passionate lover she was when the affair began. For their part, Michael Colgan and Simon Wilson cleverly portray a relationship between the two men that emerges in its way stronger than how either of them feels about her.

Present throughout, and enhanced by the dark, often threatening score, are the long, motionless pauses that characterise Pinter's minimalist work, during which the audience feels as awkward and uncertain as the characters on stage, witnessing intimately their anxiety and their discomfort with one another, even in the most conventional moments. The forced, often comical and carefully contrived dialogue is delivered clearly and with effective control, and none of the underlying meaning and contrapunctal intent are lost, carried throughout the play as they are by the omnipotent and thick silences, rich with paradox and emotion, expressing all those things we can never find the words to say. We despair at the characters self-justification for the most fundamental of errors, and we hear the unspoken words with painful clarity.

Pinter's drama questions us throughout - Who is the 'victim' here? whose decisions and reaction the most justifiable? whose pain the least deserving?
We empathise with them all, and yet with none.
How did it happen? Where did it all go wrong? What happens now?

The story is presented in reverse, so that our knowledge of the consequences of each scene bears heavy on the following one. Knowing that we know that he knows that he doesn't know adds another layer to the myriad of meanings in this masterful script.

There are some wonderful audiovisual touches that add to the emotional experience too. The upturned furniture stays on set throughout in various non-arrangements serving as a constant reminder of the chaos and upheaval in the 'real' lives of the characters, representing an ever-present displaced awkwardness. I feel now I should have paid more attention to what was in the stack of furniture...
As well as the intense lighting, and Emma's constant fussing with the tablecloth, listen out for surprises in the soundtrack and the invasive, banal yet curiously engaging TV set, especially when its off, and the action on stage is reflected on its all-seeing screen.

A poignant and highly charged night of theatre. Beautifully directed and utterly engaging.