Old Times was first performed at the Aldwych Theatre in June 1971, directed by Peter Hall and starring Colin Blakely, Dorothy Tutin, and Vivien Merchant. Three characters — Deeley, his wife Kate, and Kate’s old friend Anna, who is visiting after twenty years — spend an evening discussing the past. The question that emerges is: whose version of the past is true? Did these events really happen? Who was whose friend? Who loved whom? What was the nature of Anna and Kate’s relationship?
Pinter’s method here is to make memory itself the arena of dramatic conflict. Each character tells stories about the past that contradict the others’ stories; each claims a version of events that gives them power in the present. Anna claims intimacy with Kate that Deeley cannot share; Deeley claims experiences that exclude Anna. Kate — largely silent through much of the play — finally speaks a version of the past that annihilates both of them.
The play raises the question of whether a “real” past exists independent of its telling. Pinter’s answer appears to be no: the past is what we make of it in the present, and the struggle over memory is really a struggle over power in the here and now. The play’s final image — Kate applying face cream at her mirror while Deeley and Anna lie still on the floor — suggests that the quiet one, the one who refused to compete in the memory war, is the one who wins.
Collecting Old Times
First edition (Methuen, London, 1971): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $75–$200
- Without jacket: $15–$35
- Signed copies: $200–$500