{"id":116536,"date":"2025-08-05T15:14:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=116536"},"modified":"2025-08-06T08:00:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T12:00:02","slug":"interview-director-peter-pasyk-talks-pinters-old-times-soulpepper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/08\/05\/interview-director-peter-pasyk-talks-pinters-old-times-soulpepper\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Director Peter Pasyk Talks About Pinter\u2019s Old Times At Soulpepper"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Director
Director Peter Pasyk (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Director Peter Pasyk will direct the Soulpepper Theatre production of Harold Pinter\u2019s Old Times<\/a>, with previews beginning August 6, and opening night set for August 13. The production will continue until September 7 as an early opening to the fall season.<\/p>\n

Pinter\u2019s play is one of his lesser known titles on this side of the Atlantic. It sets up a scenario that\u2019s full of potential: a married couple welcome one of the wife\u2019s old friends for a visit.<\/p>\n

As the visit progresses, stories about the past emerge and are disputed, and memory itself becomes suspect. What did or did not occur so many years ago? What does it mean to the present?<\/p>\n

Pinter withholds certainty, leaving the ending ambiguous and open to interpretation.<\/p>\n

Ludwig-Van talked to Pasyk about the production.<\/p>\n

Director Peter Pasyk<\/h2>\n

Peter Pasyk has worked with some of Canada\u2019s leading theatre companies, including the Stratford Festival, where he directed the flagship production of Hamlet in 2022, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Tarragon Theatre, Soulpepper, and Canadian Stage. He\u2019s led several world premi\u00e8re productions, including Jordan Tannahill\u2019s\u00a0Late Company\u00a0(Theatre Centre), and was nominated for Dora Awards several others, including for The Nether,\u00a0Killer Joe,\u00a0Dying City,\u00a0When the World Was Green\u00a0and\u00a0The Jones Boy.<\/p>\n

Peter is also a filmmaker, who\u00a0co-wrote Planeta Singli (Planet Single), one of Poland’s highest grossing feature films, and he recently directed the pilot of a new Polish comedy TV series.<\/p>\n

On stage, he directed The Seafarer starring Paul Gross at Alberta Theatre Projects in late 2024. His award-winning short film The Understudy (theunderstudyfilm.com) has screened at film festivals around the world.<\/p>\n

\"Actor
Actor Christopher Morris and background models (Photo: Dahlia Katz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Peter Pasyk: The Interview<\/h3>\n

The choice to direct Pinter at Soulpepper was an easy one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s considered a modern classic,\u201d Pasyk says of the play. \u201cAnd, Soulpepper is a company is also built on presenting modern classics. That\u2019s the roots of the company. I was honoured to be asked,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Pinter\u2019s plays ask big questions whose significance doesn\u2019t diminish with time or place. \u201cClassics are considered so for a reason. There\u2019s something enduring about them that keep us curious to see them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he points out, most plays that are produced don\u2019t last beyond their first season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis play has a timelessness because it asks big questions about what it is to be human, and the nature of memory, and identity, and love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, the nature of truth in our society is a question that many of us grapple with these days.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticularly with this play, I think that throughout Pinter\u2019s work, I think that he\u2019s always been investigating the nature of truth, and perhaps posing that it is subjective,\u201d Pasyk says.<\/p>\n

Everyone\u2019s view comes from their own individual experience, as he points out. Truth depends on who sees it, and what they have lived through.<\/p>\n

He mentions Pinter\u2019s Nobel Lecture, delivered in 2005 and titled \u201cArt, Truth & Politics\u201d, which the playwright used to criticize American foreign policy, and how truth is manipulated in both politics and art.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he won the Nobel Prize, he gave a famous speech, [and he said] in my plays, I explore the nature of truth, and there is no finite truth \u2014 but when it comes to politics, there are,\u201d Pasyk says.<\/p>\n

It was undeniably a politically minded speech. \u201cBut his politics certainly aren\u2019t reflected in his plays. They\u2019re about something more fundamental.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minimalism on Stage<\/h3>\n

\u201cIt is a minimalist production,\u201d Pasyk explains, \u201cand that\u2019s really dictated by the minimalist nature \u2014 the essential quality of Pinter\u2019s writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are no wasted lines, superfluous or self-indulgent diversions away from the central plot and premise. \u201cThere\u2019s no wastage,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken that as a cue.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing to distract the audience from what\u2019s taking place on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe play is a puzzle, a mystery,\u201d Pasyk says. \u201cIt asks a lot of questions, it begs a lot of questions of the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along the way, it engages with the audience\u2019s imagination and sense of inquisitiveness. \u201cThere\u2019s an ambiguity that\u2019s baked into the premise of the piece that\u2019s important for me to preserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was careful not to impose his own interpretation of the story on the production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I love about Pinter \u2014 he trusts the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blanks can only be filled by the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cArgue with your fiends on the way home on what the truth of the matter is,\u201d Peter says. \u201cThe play is about contested truths.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nature of Memory<\/h3>\n

The couple in the story of the play have been married for 20 years. That\u2019s a lot of time for memories to percolate and change. The arrival of the wife\u2019s old friend puts all of that to the test.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere [are] a lot of discrepancies in each of their memories of the past,\u201d Pasyk explains. \u201cIn some ways, it\u2019s a mystery. It\u2019s a psychosexual thriller.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, audiences should also expect a thread of humour to run through the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s also \u2014 Pinter\u2019s also very funny. He has a wry, sharp \u2014 a dark sense of humour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The turmoil is psychological. That\u2019s why extensive sets aren\u2019t needed for his stories. \u201cAll of Pinter\u2019s play are set in a room. He didn\u2019t write plays with expansive spaces,\u201d Peter notes. \u201cHe was interested in people in a room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinter often uses the arrival of an outsider or intruder to upset the balance of that room. \u201cHe was interested in the human need for marking one\u2019s territory,\u201d Pasyk explains. \u201cThere\u2019s a kind of territorial contest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whose version of the truth will prevail?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt reminds me of that saying, history is written by the winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Memory is a kind of story we tells ourselves. In fact, we\u2019re recalling a memory of a memory, and each time we do, Pasyk likens it to a kind of broken phone exercise, or a photocopy of a photocopy, where each iteration is more and more ambiguous.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play with our own past.\u201d<\/p>\n