Review - The Birthday Party at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, until Saturday.

SINISTER events unfold in a somewhat seedy seaside 'boarding house' on Stanley's birthday.

He's a long-staying guest, but his continued residency and his mundane life becomes threatened by the arrival of two mysterious strangers - one Jewish, the other Irish.

There are dark mutterings about him having departed 'the organisation', but which organisation?

I am still none the wiser, nor am I sure exactly where Stanley was being spirited away to in a traumatised state after his brilliantly played bizarre birthday party.

I have to console myself with the thought that it's all peculiarly Pinteresque. All a shade gloomy, occasionally grim and that certainly applies to the splendid set - but this superbly acted contemporary play also has its lighter moments. Menace and mirth seem better companions than Stanley and the strangers.

Eileen Atkins is exquisitely excellent as the loopy landlady, while Henry Goodman's portrayal of the powerful Goldberg is the eyecatcher.

Full credit too for Geoffery Hutchings (Petey), Sinead Matthews as the frothy Lulu, Finbar Linch, the menacing McCann, and not forgetting Paul Ritter, as sad Stanley.

Was it all just a party game? I'm still not sure. AW