Trabajo
II -Harold Pinter: Almost 50 year a playwriter-
Play’s I’ve selected and
read from Harold Pinter are:
The Dumb Waiter (written
in 1957, first staged in 1960 in London)
The Collection (first
presented in 1961 in London)
Ashes to Ashes (first
presented in 1996 in London)
Harold Pinter was born on
the 30 October 1930 in Hackney, a working-class neighbourhood in London. He
grew up in war which had a great influence on him for the rest of his life. His
father was a Jewish Tailor and during the Second World War they were evacuated.
They returned in 1944. He acted in school productions and got a grant to study
at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He left the academy after two years. In
1950 he started to publish poems and acted in various plays. His first play,
The Room, came in 1957. His first plays can be labelled as ‘comedy of menace’.
‘They
often take an apparently innocent situation, and turn it into a threatening and
absurd one by means of characters acting in ways which seem inexplicable both
to the audience and, sometimes, to other characters.’[1]
Pinter has written 29 playwrights and some sketches. After 1978´s Betrayal,
Pinter did not write another full-length play until 1994. He did work on
shorter plays and adapted work of others for stage and screen.[2]
He has always been political motivated; her refused
national service as a conscientious objector of war. Since the overthrow of
Chile's President Allende in 1973, Pinter has been active in human rights
issues.[3]
Since this time he has been more politically motivated and uses his fame and
skills and to express his opinion. On his official website (haroldpinter.org),
in papers and on conferences he expresses his view on political issues. He also
reflects his political view in his plays. There are for example in Ashes to
Ashes references to the Second World War. ´REBECCA: (…) And my best friend, the
man I had given my heart to, the man I knew was the man for me the moment we
met, my dear, my most precious companion, I watched him walk down the platform
and tear all the babies from the arms of their screaming mothers.´ (Ashes to
Ashes. p: 418-419) This is one of the references in this play of the
deportation from Jews to concentration camps.
Besides these plays, Pinter
has written screenplays, directed, acted and has also written articles in
papers like the Guardian. He was married to Vivian Merchant until 1977 and got
a son. He left her in 1977 and married Lady Antonia Fraser in 1980.
Pinter received a
great number of awards for his work. Under which European Prize for Literature
(Vienna); from different university’s honorary degrees; The Brianza Poetry
Prize, Italy 2000; South Bank Show Award for Outstanding Achievement in the
Arts, 2001; The S.T. Dupont Golden Pen Award 2001 for a Lifetime's
Distinguished Service to Literature; World Leaders Award, Toronto, Canada,
2001; Diploma “ad Honorem”, Teatro Filodrammatici, Milan, Italy 2004 and many
more.[4]
Dumb Waiter and The
Collection were both written in the beginning of his playwriting career. The
Dumb Waiter was first performed in 1960 by the Hampstead Theatre Club. After
the quite successful play ´the Caretaker´ established this play his talents and
gave him status. The collection was staged one year later; in 1961. Ashes to
Ashes came a few decades later; in 1996. In his first years as a playwriter he
wrote at least two plays a year. Since the play betrayal in 1978 till 1994 he
didn’t write any full-length plays.[5] In these
years he went investing more of his time in his other occupations. He became
political very active. He frequently directed his plays himself and assimilated
his work so that they could be used for radio, television and film. He also
assimilated work from other writers for film and television.[6]
Although the time
differences between the three plays, especially between the first two and Ashes
to Ashes are there still great similarities visible. I discuss in this part
general aspects of the work of Harold Pinter and how the can be found back in
the selected plays.
´His works, which blend comedy and drama, often focus on
jealousy, betrayal, and sexual politics, but it is his dialogue—and the lack of
dialogue—for which he is known.´[7] These
themes can be found back in each of my selected plays. A big theme in the Dumb
Waiter is betrayal. In the end Ben betrays Gus by getting his revolver to shoot
Gus. ´BEN Gus! The door right opens
sharply. BEN turns, his revolver
levelled at the door. GUS stumbles
in.´ (The Dumb Waiter, p. 164-165). In the collection are all three;
jealousy, betrayal and sexual politics, visible. Bill and Stella have met each
other on a congress. James, Stella’s husband thinks she has betrayed him with
James there. It stays unclear if they did betray James or not. In Ashes to
Ashes it’s Rebecca who has betrayed Devlin with another men. Devlin is jealous
about this. ´DEVLIN Physically. I mean,
what did he actually look like? (...) I just want, well, I need...to have a
clearer idea of him...because I have absolutely no idea... as things stand...
of what he looked like.´ (Ashes to Ashes, p 399-400) Above all is their a political
theme in Ashes to Ashes. The plays refers several times to the Second World
War. This might be considered as a difference with the other plays due to the
time differences between the plays and the development of Harold Pinter in this
time.
´Pinter's work is heavily influenced by Samuel Beckett,
who used silence-filled pauses for a revolutionary theatrical effect. Pinter
has spoken of speech as a stratagem designed to cover the nakedness of
silence.´[8] In each
play that I’ve selected can you find this characteristic. In the Dumb Waiter
most of the time when Gus poses a question that Ben doesn’t want to answer Ben
answers with a silence. ´GUS. What time is he getting in touch? BEN reads GUS What time is he getting in
touch? ´ (The Dumb Waiter, p. 132) The Collection is also filled with silences.
´STELLA. What are you going to do? He
looks at her, with a brief smile, then away. Jimmy... Pause. Are you going out? Pause.
Will you ... be in tonight? JAMES reaches
for a glass ashtray, flicks ash, and regards the ashtray.´ (The Collection,
p. 122) In Ashes to Ashes, written more than thirty years later
this characteristic is still very visible. ´DEVLIN´ ‘The liquor must.’ Pause. I always knew you loved me.
REBECCA Why? DEVLIN Because we like the same tunes. Silence. Listen. Pause.
Why have you (...) you understand that? Silence.´
(Ashes to Ashes, p. 425-426)
Another
similarity between the plays of Harold Pinter is the location of the story.
Most of his plays take place in one room where the characters are being
threatened or where their intentions stay unclear for the public. Most of the
time the actors struggle to survive or keep their identity.[9]
In both the Dumb Waiter as Ashes to Ashes do the actions indeed take place in
one room. In the first is it a small basement room, the second takes place in a
ground-floor room in a house in the country. In Ashes to Ashes there is only
this room, in The Dumb Waiter is also off-space is. The Collection is an
exception from this theory. The action takes place in three separate areas and
their is interaction between these areas.
Sources:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hpinter.htm
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Pinter
http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/dumbwaiter/context.html
http://scholieren.samenvattingen.nl/documenten/show/8458650/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/pinter/pinter-timeline.shtml
© 2004 A.N. van
der Plas