No Man's Land **** TNT

This is a very classy revival of Harold Pinter’s very enigmatic 1970s play. Rupert Goold’s strongly-cast production takes place in the sumptuous Hampstead home of Michael Gambon’s Hirst, a wealthy man of letters. The room is dominated by an extensive bar which screams indulgent opulence and pushes his extensive book collection far into the background.
After a chance encounter on Hampstead Heath (an area long notorious for anonymous gay pickups, though nothing is made explicit and Spooner himself confirms that he is long past that sort of thing) he has invited back David Bradley’s wheedling, down-at-heel Spooner, an unsuccessful writer dressed in the sort of clothes a scarecrow would reject.

Until the interval, a facially crumpled Gambon (Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films) says very little – though his dull, inebriated befuddlement speaks of a deep despair. It’s only later that, temporarily, he reappears transformed – bright, alert and back in control as he informs Spooner that he had a longstanding affair with his wife. Or did he?

It’s that sort of play – nothing is made clear, and consequently the main pleasure of the evening comes from small, telling moments and the strength of the individual performances – with Hirst’s servants (Little Britain's David Walliams slick, camp Foster, and Nick Dunning’s menacing, cockney Briggs) completing the quartet of players in this bleak power game.

Duke of York’s, St Martin’s Lane, WC2 (0870-060 6623). Until january 3. £15-£47.50