Ficha de lectura

Harold Pinter

Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to Ashes was first presented by the Royal Court at the Ambassadors Theatre, London, on 12 September 1996.

Characters

There are two characters in this play; Devlin and Rebecca. They are both in their forties. They appear to be married because Devlin asks Rebecca about a love affair. Rebecca seems to get distracted quickly. When Devlin is interrogating her she seems to go easy on to another subject. He is interrogating her about her former lover and wants to know all the details. The plays says nothing about the looks of the characters.

Resume

Rebecca tells Devlin about her former lover. During this Devlin asks for more details. Sometimes Rebecca or both of them get distracted en start talking about other things. Some facts about him change too. First her lover is a travel guide but later she tells he was boss in some kind of factory. For this reason you never know exactly is she is telling the truth and if there is a truth. She tells that his man ´used to go to the railway station and walk down the platform and tear all the babies from the arms of their screaming mothers.´ (p. 406-407) This seems to refer to the Second World War, to the deportation of Jews to concentration camps. Later Rebecca repeats this and in the end she ís a mother. A mother whose baby is taken away and then gets on a train.

Space and Time

The play takes place in a normal living room in a country house. It is a large ground-floor room with a big window and behind that window a garden. In the room are two armchairs and two lamps. The play starts on early evening in the summer. During the play it gets darker `outside´ and inside the house. The lamplight gets more and more intense. By the end we can only see dimly the garden. The lamps shine bright but don’t illuminate the whole room. There are no time-lapse. The play takes about an hour to perform and that is also the time of the story told. There are references to the past. They are talking about the affair Rebecca had and also about the Second World War. For Rebecca this all seems to have happened in the short past.

Language
Almost all the sentences from Devlin have question marks on the end. He is really interrogating Rebecca. He wants to know all the details. `DEVLIN: What sort of agency? REBECCA: A travel agency. DEVLIN: What sort of travel agency? REBECCA: He was a guide, you see. A guide. DEVLIN: A tourist guide? Pause.´ (p.403) There is a lot of repetition in his use of language what gives a certain rhythm and makes it almost poetic. `DEVLIN: Because you don’t know where it had been. You don’t know how many other hands have held it, how many other hands have written with it, what other people have been doing with it. You know nothing of its history. You know nothing of its parents` history.´ (p.410) Pinter uses regularly silences in his speech. This gives a special theatrical effect. ´DEVLIN´ ‘The liquor must.’ Pause. I always knew you loved me. REBECCA Why? DEVLIN Because we like the same tunes. Silence. Listen. Pause. Why have you (...) you understand that? Silence.´ (Ashes to Ashes, p. 425-426) The structure of the dialogues is illogical what makes it look like, when you read it, like some kind of dream (nightmare).