Teacher: Vicente Forés
Course: Filología Inglesa
I
Date: November – 10th – 2005
Harold
Pinter’s plays that I’ve chosen are: The Dumb Waiter, The
Collection, and Party Time.
On
January of 1960, Harold Pinter’s play The Dumb Waiter was performed (at the Hampstead
Theatre Club
and under the direction of James Roose-Evans). In this play, there are
only two
characters called Ben and Gus, and all the action happens at the same
scene: a
dark room with two beds, a door to a kitchen (on the left), a door to a
passage
(on the right), a lavatory that doesn’t flush and a “serving hatch”
between the
beds. Ben and Gus are a pair of gangsters that are hidden in a basement
room of
a café while they are waiting for a call from their boss (Wilson). Ben
is the
head of the group, he likes reading the same newspaper and he is always
ordering tasks to Gus; however, Gus is the subordinate, he is always arguing
with Ben and moving around the room, he’s never still. Both they will have
comical dialogues and some difficulties with a serving hatch (which is “the
dumb waiter”).
Later,
on June of 1962, the play The Collection was presented (at the
Aldwych
Theatre). By contrast to The Dumb Waiter, this play was directed by
Harold Pinter (and Peter Hall too), there are four characters: Harry, Bill,
James and Stella; and the scenes are divided in three areas: a house
(Harry’s
house), a flat (James’ flat), and, a telephone box. The play is about a
misterious romantic conflict between two dress designers, Bill and Stella; a
conflict that will risk the stability of James and Stella’s marriage. I
need to
emphasize the affective relation between Bill and James, they have an
excellent
dialogue that sometimes seems to appear the conversation between a
psychologist
and his patient (…”Bill: Well, you only see yourself in the mirror, don’t
you?” “James: That’s good enough for me.”…). And the play’s title The
Collection only refers to a collection of Chinese pots that Bill has (I
haven’t found any other reason).
Many
years later, in 1991 (at the Almeida Theatre), one of Pinter’s last
plays was
presented: Party Time. The performance, the same as The
Collection,
was directed by Harold Pinter, but there were more characters: Terry, Gavin,
Dusty, Melissa, Liz, Charlotte, Douglas, Fred, Jimmy (and a waiter); and the
scenario, the same as The Dumb Waiter , was placed in one area: a
large
room with sofas and a waiter (a room from Gavin’s flat). This time the
play’s
title is totally thematic, by contrast of The Collection, the play is
about a party celebrated by a group of wealthy people. Party Time
is a
very short play that critisizes some different aspects of upper classes like
the fraudulent marriage of Terry and Dusty (…”Dusty: I love cooking on
boats.” “Terry: The only thing she doesn’t like on boats is being fucked on
boats”…) or the speeches done by Melissa and Gavin about the snubb clubs
(when I read that speech I thought for instance that I was reading a
script of
the great comedy of Frasier). P.D. The only thing I don’t
understand
from this play is the strange situation of Jimmy’s
character.
Bibliography:
Harold Pinter’s The Dumb
Waiter
Harold Pinter’s The
Collection
Harold Pinter’s Party
Time
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