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Harold Pinter’s Old Times was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, in 1971. The psychological thriller, with its devious mind games, captivated the audience, and quickly emerged as one of Pinter’s classics. Now, 37 years later, the play will descend on the intimate stage of the McAulay Studio Theatre, no doubt remaining as relevant as ever: Old Times deals with one of humanity’s oldest vices – jealousy.

The company taking on this inspired work – which takes the audience on a wild ride of intrigue and confusion – is one of the city’s pioneering English-language theatre companies. They’re called Sometimes Y Theatre, and are run by Canadian director Robert Tsonos. Speaking over the phone from the Yangtze River, where the theatre director is taking a quick boat cruise holiday, he enthuses about how he was struck while watching Old Times performed in London two years ago: “I’m a fan of Pinter, the tension is so fantastic and the characters are so well defined.”

Tsonos has recruited three professional actors to take on Pinter’s script: New Zealand actress Suzy Sampson, Natalie Schull who recently moved here from New York, and Henry Coombs, who was born and bred in Hong Kong. This is the 12th year that Tsonos has been professionally working in theatre. He launched his company in Toronto, followed by a five-year stint in Tokyo where he had the lucky job of running shows in the 200-seater basement theatre of the Canadian Embassy. Since moving to Hong Kong in 2006, Tsonos has staged two plays – The Hum, his own, followed by Edward Albee’s malicious black comedy The Goat, in which an architect controversially falls in love with a goat. He’s no newcomer to bringing moments of tension to the stage.

Which is fortunate, for Pinter’s Old Times is a brilliantly woven, psychological masterpiece that at times will utterly frustrate its audience. The play follows a middle-aged film director and his wife, who receive an unexpected visit from the wife’s former roommate. As the play unfolds, the three reminisce about their younger days, and a darker force begins to emerge. “The tension is so fantastic, and the characters are so well defined,” marvels Tsonos. “It’s a third person trying to really mess up a marriage, with the assumption that she’s there to take the man away…” Clare Morin