Moonlight (play)

Setting

THREE MAIN PLAYING AREAS:1. Andy's bedroom — well furnished 2. Fred's bedroom — shabby (These rooms are in different locations.) 3. An area in which Bridget appears, through which Andy moves at night and where Jake, Fred and Bridge play their scene. (Grove Press ed., n. pag.)

Synopsis

Andy, who is on his deathbed,

rehashes his youth, loves, lusts, and betrayals with his wife, [Bel], while simultaneously his two sons [Fred and Jake] – clinical, conspiratorial, the bloodless, intellectual offspring of a hearty anti-intellectual – sit in the shadows, speaking enigmatically and cyclically, stepping around and around the fact of their estrangement from their father, rationalizing their love-hate relations with him and the distance that they are unable to close even when their mother attempts to call them home. In counterpoint to their uncomprehending isolation between the extremes of the death before life and the death after is their younger sister, Bridget, who lightly bridges the gaps between youth and age, death and life. (Back cover of the Grove Press ed.)

Characters

ANDY, a man in his fifties

BEL, a woman of fifty

JAKE, a man of twenty-eight

FRED, a man of twenty-seven

MARIA, a woman of fifty

RALPH, a man in his fifties

BRIDGET, a girl of sixteen (Grove Press ed., n. pag.)

Premiere

First performed at the Almeida Theatre, London, on 7 September 1993; transferred to the Comedy Theatre in November 1993

Cast

Ian Holm (Andy)

Anna Massey (Bel)

Douglas Hodge (Jake)

Michael Sheen (Fred)

Jill Johnson (Maria)

Edward de Souza (Ralph)

Claire Skinner (Bridget)

Production team

David Leveaux, director

Bob Crowley, Designer (HaroldPinter.org)

New York premiere

At the Laura Pels Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, 27 September – 17 December 1995

Opening Night Cast

Melissa Chalsma (Bridget)

Blythe Danner (Bel)

Paul Hecht (Ralph)

Barry McEvoy (Fred)

Jason Robards (Andy)

Liev Schreiber (Jake)

Kathleen Widdoes (Maria)

Production team

Karel Reisz, director

Tony Walton, Set Designer

Mirena Rada, Costume Designer

Richard Pilbrow, Lighting Designer

Tom Clark, Sound Designer (IOBDB)

BBC Radio 3 programme

Part of Harold Pinter Double Bill (with Voices) originally broadcast to marking Pinter's 75th birthday, in October 2005; rebroadcast as part of the Harold Pinter Tribute on BBC Radio 3's Drama on 3, on 15 February 2009.

Cast

Harold Pinter (Andy)

Sara Kestelman (Bel)

John Shrapnel(Ralph)

Jill Johnson (Maria)

Douglas Hodge (Jake)

Harry Burton (Fred)

Indira Varma (Bridget)

Production team

Janet Whitaker, director

Elizabeth Parker, Music

Works cited

Pinter, Harold. Moonlight, New York: Grove Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8021-3393-2 (10). ISBN 978-0-8021-3393-9 (13). (Parenthetical references to this edition appear in the text.)

–––. Moonlight. Harold Pinter Double Bill (with Voices). BBC Radio 3 Drama Programmes – Drama on 3. BBC, 15 February 2009. Web. 15 February 2009. [First broadcast Oct. 2005, as part of Pinter's 75th birthday celebration. Re-broadcast 15 February 2009, as part of Harold Pinter Tribute. (Streaming audio accessible for 7 days after broadcasts).]