he also directed the current Gate Homecoming, also set to visit New York this month - has elicited the best performance we have seen from Pinter in several years. His rhythm has more suspense than I have known before - Pinter the actor has sometimes been curiously fond of riding over those famous pauses that Pinter the author likes to write. His interpretation is full of compelling self-contradictions; the physical, tactile tenderness he shows to his victim Victor, the paternal jocularity he shows to little Nicky, the insulting tone in which he addresses Gila. This is a subtle account of the play. Line by line, you are held by the gradual, shifting self-revelation of Nicolas's mind. It is a far more complex understanding of police-state tyranny than that shown by such famous villains as Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca, and far more appalling. And, politics apart, you feel how Pinter can turn a stream of consciousness into the stuff of purest drama. Moment by moment, your understanding of the scene before you keeps being mysteriously and drastically changed, as if by sudden shafts of light from unexpected angles. Alastair Macaulay Harold Pinter's work is represented by Judy Daish Associates Limited - and applications for all performances and uses of Harold Pinter's work (including amateur and professional stage performances, radio broadcasts, television transmissions and readings and use of extracts) need to be addressed to them in the first instance and in advance of finalizing your plans. Judy Daish Associates will then contact