The rhythm would speak for itself

Today's WSJ draws attention to a quote in The Guardian that I can't stop thinking about.

"It was the very first production at Hampstead Theatre, in 1960. He wrote to me and asked me to play Riley [in "The Room"]. It was a very dense play and I didn't really understand it, but I was very flattered he'd asked me, so I thought, "Why not?" On the third day, there was a frightful row between Harold and Vivien Merchant on the rehearsal floor. She said: "I can't say this line. What does it mean? It doesn't seem to make sense." He said: "Just say the line, observe the pauses and it will work." I was heartened to know that I wasn't the only person who was puzzled. When Vivien complained to him about saying the lines, it meant that even as his wife, she hadn't been able to understand. . . . But I learned that if you said the lines exactly as he wrote them -- observing the pauses, the commas and semi-colons -- the rhythm would speak for itself."

Thomas Baptiste quoted in "Old Times: Actors Remember Harold Pinter," the Guardian (London), Jan. 8.