Staged in the round (actually in a rectangle), Harold Pinter’s Request Stop provides an intimate “in the ring” experience of being at a side of a bus stop where diverse characters will await transportation. The wait is full of Pinteresque pauses, sudden actions, frustrations. The people waiting are of different sexes, ages, and probably social and economic statuses. They stay apart and get together, are cordial and the opposite, and—it is safe to say—have different personalities and desires. A well dressed, slick-haired man with umbrella arrives to wait at a Request Stop poll. In due course there line up behind him the following: A mid-20ish woman in (perhaps business) suit. A casually dressed man with long, tied back brown hair who wears red boxing gloves. A tall, longm blonde-haired woman in a long flowered dress. A chubby adolescent girl carrying a rag gal doll. A middle aged capped man and with casual jacket and trousers who at one point brings out a slim piece of brown fur that he makes look like a mini fox. Breaking into the line early during the wait and going onto the base of the bus stop Pole, when the first man moves, a short-dressed probable high school senior or early collegiate girl hangs her backpack on the Pole and leaves her purse at the base. She becomes a primary instigator of others‘ mainly group actions and reactions throughout the play. She assumes a devastating role toward the end and may be not left well off. Throughout the wait there are action breaks in the line. The gowned blonde sings a hymn, setting off more than song. There’s romance. The red gloved guy lets down his hair...and not just figuratively. The first in line seems to go completely out of character, as does the young woman behind and joining him. The adolescent’s doll gets rough treatment by one of those waiting but that’s fixed by another. The kid isn’t just a victim; she shows another side of herself. So, in fact, does everyone before the play is over. Each portrayal is superb—from the comic to the troublesome and disturbing. Director Ilka-Cordula Felcht has choreographed every movement of the actors to convey suspense, character, changes of situation. Her blocking allows everything to be clearly seen and heard, and the so apt music never is underplayed or overwhelming. This was the last presentation of AACT’s WORLDFEST 2018 and nicely brought it to full circle, duplicating the excellence of the first show.
