Most audiences know that Harold Pinter is more about setting up situations than providing solutions. Accepting that, focus can be diverted from filling in the blanks to savoring how Pinter constructs sinister playgrounds with his artful use of language. And language doesn't necessarily mean words; what is unsaid can be as potent as the spoken.
And that's how it is in "The Birthday Party," which, although only his second play when first produced in 1958, showed a playwright who already knew his voice. True, not everyone wanted to hear that voice back then, and there are still situations that can rankle audiences even if they know what to expect from Pinter. But it's pretty certain that his long run as a rankler would make the late playwright very happy.
ACT currently has a first-class production of "The Birthday Party" at the Geary Theater, one filled with humor, fueled not by jokes but by woozily recognizable behavior encased in a growing sense of menace. Carey Perloff, who is directing her final production as ACT's artistic director, is both a Pinter worshiper and expert, and the care taken with this production is palpable. Her cast ranges from good to excellent.
While the circumstances can vary widely, there is a moody through-line to Pinter's plays often involving routine circumstances upset by the arrival of an outsider. Sometimes that outsider becomes a psychological plaything for those already on the scene, or, as in the case of "The Birthday Party," a pair of outsiders turns a dreary seaside B&B into a bleary funhouse in which the only lodger becomes a target for unknown infractions against an anonymous entity.
The play could almost be subtitled "How Are the Cornflakes?" The long-married Meg and Petey's rituals include breakfast preparations in which Meg asks on the quality of that morning's serving of cornflakes. "Are they nice?" Meg asks. "Very nice," replies Petey. But their tetchy lodger is not always as magnanimous toward his serving of cornflakes. "Horrible," says Stanley when Meg inquires about the state of the flakes. "You're a little liar," she counters with unwanted flirtatiousness. "They're refreshing. It says so."
Their reactions to news that two new lodgers are soon to arrive are varied. The unflappable Petey doesn't care, the dithering Meg is excited at the prospect of fresh faces, and Stanley immediately turns paranoid. The charmingly erudite Goldberg and his brutish cohort McCann create a festive atmosphere that Meg, Petey, and neighbor Lulu are happy to buy into, while the pair subtly but steadily torment Stanley.
As Goldberg, Scott Wentworth exudes unctuous power with self-confidence that seems so total that we are thrown when it briefly unravels. ACT stalwart Marco Barricelli is huge in form and formidability as the taciturn McCann. Julie Adamo is fine in the underdeveloped role of Lulu, and Dan Hiatt is a polished study in mindless complacency as Petey. Judith Ivey is a complete delight as Meg, never wavering in commitment to the character's cheery befuddlement. Only Firdous Bamji feels less than secure in the role of Stanley, the play's most complex, with visible actorly mannerisms ever-so-briefly pulling us from the self-contained world that Pinter and Perloff have so sharply created for us.
"The Birthday Party" will run at the Geary Theater through Feb. 4. Tickets are $15-$110. Call (415) 749-2228 or go to act-sf.org.
Petey (Dan Hiatt) and Meg (Judith Ivey) engage in their morning routine in Harold Pinter's 'The Birthday Party," playing at ACT's Geary Theater. Photo: Kevin Berne