Washington Post - Highly Recommended
"...It’s a pleasure to watch Kahn’s acute hand in the guiding of three polished performances on the stage of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh Theatre. Although he tends more often in his professional duties to practice high-end crowd control with far more heavily populated classical plays, Kahn has sensitive antennae for the refinements of psychology that can be drawn out of a play with a small cast. That facility was apparent, for instance, in his treatment several years ago of the Tennessee Williams one-acts of “Five by Tenn,” mounted at the Kennedy Center."
Washington Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...Throughout his career, Harold Pinter was extraordinarily adept at plumbing human appetites and probing the depths of personality. His "Old Times," in a brilliant production at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, is proof of Pinter's ability to make those appetites fascinating and to keep those personalities mesmerizing."
MetroWeekly - Highly Recommended
"...Hitting it out of the park and making this a production not to be missed is an astounding Holly Twyford as the keenly astute Anna. In total command of her accent and thus allowing us to savor Pinter's language unhindered, Anna grows in dimension with every utterance. And Twyford evokes not only this engaging, possibly emotionally dangerous woman, but also the entire past from which she hails. When Anna talks wistfully of sitting before the electric fire in her bedsit with Kate, one can see, feel and smell the coziness of the room and the life that went with it. This ability to conjure so vividly makes Anna's assaults on Deeley's memories all the more potent and unsettling. And yet when Deeley begins to declare war, Twyford quickly shows that Anna is not just out for blood but, like everyone here, holds close something precious too. To own and exude this myriad of human complexity is masterful."
WeLoveDC - Recommended
"...The journey is the destination in Old Times, but I’d suggest you make sure you travel with a good amount of company. You’ll want to talk out exactly where the hell you’ve been."
Talkin Broadway - Recommended
"...Director Michael Kahn understands the impact of the unseen and unspoken on observable behavior, and he has three performers who can convey depths of character with a minimum of extraneous emotion. Twyford is striking in her self-possession, her quiet confidence, and her apparent forthrightness even when contradicting herself. Culp is more aggressive though never violent, and Middendorf ably demonstrates the mercurial nature of a person who takes on different personas in changing circumstances."
Washington City Paper - Recommended
"...Let me say, too, that as intriguing as the other two characters are—I don’t mean to slight actors Steven Culp or Tracy Lynn Middleton with passing mention, because they’re both quite good—it’s Holly Twyford’s Anna I’d like to have on my side in any battle of wits. She’s arch, cutting, ruthless, and the designers have got her up to look like the love child of Maria Callas and Mrs. Danvers. Terrifying. And terrific fun."
Washingtonian - Recommended
"...Unsettling tension is at the core of Pinter, and Walt Spangler’s set—an achingly minimalist white box—heightens the hyperreality without becoming a distraction. Toward the play’s conclusion, a Washington miracle occurred: The audience stopped coughing and watched, transfixed. Gripes about dialects aside, I doubt Michael Kahn will ever get much more of an affirmation than that."
Washington Blade - Highly Recommended
"...Impeccably staged by Shakepeare’s gay artistic director Michael Kahn, the production is taut and very funny. The three-person cast is first rate. Making her debut at Shakespeare, Twyford (who is also gay) handles the brief, precise Pinter dialogue beautifully, and rather hilariously fills the playwright’s well-known pauses with expectant frozen smiles."
ShowBizRadio - Recommended
"...As far as inspired acting is concerned, Twyford’s Anna carrries this production from start to finish, making it a rewarding (though essentially bleak) experience. Head held high, eyes flashing, Twyford moves briskly and speaks energetically. Her presence is edgy and unpredictable. She offsets Culp’s stolid petulance and truculence and Middendorf’s dull passivity."
DramaUrge - Somewhat Recommended
"...The program indicates that Old Times (1971) is a play about memory, citing research in the last decade which suggests that Pinter was way ahead of his time by equating belief with memory. This is inaccurate at best since the research about the malleability of memory had being going on for decades before Pinter took it up creatively. At the least, it misrepresents the playwright's intentions. Following in the absurdist tradition of Pirandello, Pinter was interested in the arbitrariness of meaning as well as memory. To paraphrase from both, it's true if you think it's true. And perhaps that will be your reaction to this production of the play: You'll like it if you think you do and conversely. "
DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended
Is there anything more delicious than Harold Pinter done well? When the show’s funny and weird and a polite sense of dread hangs over everything like a sinister odor?
The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Old Times, directed by Michael Kahn, is as immaculate as Walt Spangler’s blindingly white, ultra-modern set. The beauty of Mr. Kahn’s staging lies in how cleanly and wickedly he plunges into the messy imprecision of memory.
