"[Sands] doesn’t exactly do Pinter the way Robert Morse did Truman Capote. But when he reads Pinter’s poems, as well as the odd prose piece, you feel the playwright’s presence...This modest, affecting show embodies the notion of the actor as a transparent vessel through which we see the thoughts and feelings of others...There is something profoundly humble about their putting their bodies in the service of other minds."
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"Delivered with sensitivity and precision, it is a performance as stripped back and elemental as Pinter's language, delivered to an aud happy to savor the British actor's every word...As celebrations go, it is an austere, ascetic and restrained performance, one that captures the pugnacity, precision and a little of the dry humor of an exacting writer."
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"The production is well constructed...Malkovich and Sands have expertly framed all of these facts, statements, and thoughts on Pinter around his poems. His delivery of the material evokes a deep connection with the audience...This one-man show turns out to be a combination of theatrical performance, remembrance, celebration, and lecture. While it may not appeal to everyone, it is a highly recommended experience for any fan of theatre, writing, and intellectual stimulation."
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"Unfortunately both the manner and accompanying matter of this 'Celebration of Harold Pinter,' which sifts through Pinter’s poetry back-catalogue with blanket reverence, smack too much of an earnest sixth-form lecture – one delivered by a prize pupil in honour of a formidable, life-changing teacher...Sands believes Pinter’s poetry alone would have secured him a place in the annals. Having listened to his selection it’s hard to share anything like that opinion."
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"There are a couple of good anecdotes, although it could do with a few more, and it does draw heavily on Antonia Fraser's memoir, 'Must You Go.' John Malkovich is credited with directing, but quite what he did is a mystery, because there's a singular lack of variation in staging and performance. It's not bad; just rather dull. And Pinter was never that."
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"The show consists of Sands standing alone onstage telling us what he knew and loved about his friend, occasionally quoting from a letter or a poem. There is no drama, conflict, or character arc...Though Sands’ performance appears straightforward, it’s actually a quite subtle one, filled with pauses that comically recall the ones used by Pinter in his plays. Both devotees of Pinter and his work and those simply looking for an entertaining 90 minutes of theater will find much to enjoy."
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"There's a great deal of passion in Sands's performance...He has the same punchy terseness and curdled vocal delivery, and he gives a good idea of Pinter's physical presence, and menace, too...Sands puts a tremendous verve and rhythm into his readings, and he seems entitled to his opinion that one or two of his love poems to Antonia Fraser are among the greatest of all English love poems."
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"Initially one wonders if this talk by Julian Sands – part lecture, part eulogy, part recitation – would be better suited to the Book Festival than one of the larger Pleasance spaces. Of course not. Pinter was a man of the theatre, perhaps the most influential British playwright of the last century, and although it’s his poetry and prose which Sands concentrates on, it feels apposite for us to be listening to it in the kind of pros arch theatre in which so much of his work played."
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