PARADOXICALLY, given that it was inspired by Oliver Sacks's "Awakenings" and the real dramatic stories therein of patients being revived from the after-effects of encephalitis lethargic by the administration of a new medication, this third offering in the current Harold Pinter Festival is less substantially dramatic than its two predecessors. But it an impressive work nonetheless and it is wonderfully enhanced by a brilliant and profound performance by Penelope Wilton as Deborah, the woman waking up at the age of 45 knowing only what had happened to her up to the age of 15 or 16.
Something is happening?" she states interrogatively after her eyes have scanned the strange room she finds herself in, with Dr Hornby observing her from the other side of that room. And then: "No one hears what I say. No one is listening to me."
It is as if she has been trying to talk for years past. Was she aware of her surroundings when she was "asleep"? And then there is a faltering but speeding rush of animated memories of what, to her, was yesterday, with two sisters, dogs, Daddy, Mummy, boyfriend Jack, wit and fun and dancing.
Later, her sister Pauline, come to see her, asks Dr Hornby should she tell Deborah lies or the truth. "Both" he answers, and we realise that we really are in Pinterland after all.
Karel Reisz has directed with a compelling stillness and Jim Norton's Hornby and Bernadette McKenna's Pauline are perfectly still complements to Penelope Wilton's growing and erratic animation. The small ensemble is seamless and near perfect, but Ms Wilton's creative art is necessarily dominant and utterly entrancing a performance absolutely not to be missed.