PARTY TIME

AUTHOR: Harold Pinter

TITLE: Party Time

EDITORIAL: Faber and Faber. During 1991.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

In this play, we have nine characters.

-Terry, who is 40 years old. He is married with Dusty. He has a bad temperament and he is jealous. He often talks badly to his wife. And he says to her that he loves her because she is the mother of his children, he is very cruel.

-Dusty, who is 20 years old. She is married with Terry. She loves boats and sailing. She loves her husband a lot. And she loves talking with her friends.

-Gavin, who is 50 years old. He is a friend of Terry and Dusty, and he talks with her a lot. He was born in the West Country. He loves the club.

-Melissa, who is 70 years old. She is a good friend of the rest. And in the play she reminds the party all the time.

-Liz, who is 30 years old. She loves Douglas. She has a good friend who is Charlotte.

-Douglas, who is 50 years old. He loves Liz. His best friend is Fred. He talks about peace, because he wants peace.

-Charlotte, who is 30 years old. She is a widow of only 30 years of age. Her husband died by an illness. But she meets Fred and they fall in love. She loves him, and they talk together about her husband, life…

-Fred, who is 40 years old. She loves Charlotte. He is beginner’s luck. He and she talk a lot.

-Jimmy, who is a young man. He only appears at the end of the play. He is the brother of Dustin. He is dead. He says that he hears voices when all is quiet, and that he sees things that aren’t normal. And he tells that the unique thing that he has is the darkness.

PLOT AND SUMMARY

These characters are in a party that is organised by Gavin. It occurs in a club. The characters talk about their lives, about their dreams, but they aren’t worried by reality, the day after day, that is cruel and hard.

In the party Fred meets Charlotte, and they fall in love. Terry and Dusty argue for jealous. Moreover Melissa says that this club, where they are, is a great club, because it has moral values. At the end, Jimmy appears, who is dead. He says that the only thing that is of him is the darkness.

SPACE AND TIME

This play takes place in a party that occurs in a social club. And in it, the actions pass in order, one after other, in the same night.

LITERARY RESOURCES

The language used by Pinter in the majority of his plays and in this in concrete is very usual, daily, and easy. We can see it in the repetitions that are used in this play, the usual words, the simple phrases…and it makes the play easy to read, but this play is confusing because the sense is difficult. We don’t know what the author want to say. Then I must emphasize the silence used by the author in his plays. In this, we can see a lot of pauses and silences.

PERSONAL OPINION

In this play, like in other that are of Pinter, predominate the mystery. The characters are worried by their lives, but the society, the world don’t worried them. They live in a good part of society, they have luxuries, they go to parties…and the most mysterious character in the play is Jimmy. Nobody says anything about Jimmy; nobody wants to talk about him. I think that he is died, because nobody talks about him and he only appears at the end, alone, and says that the darkness is the only thing that is of him.

In my opinion, this play is very confusing, and I don’t understand it very well. The characters are complicated and the action is difficult, although the vocabulary is easy.

THE DUMB WAITER

AUTHOR: Harold Pinter

TITLE: The Dumb Waiter

EDITORIAL: University photocopies. It was written around 1957.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

In this play we can find two characters, like in Waiting for Godot ,but we find Wilson, too, who never appears but is another character. Returning to this play, the characters mentioned previously are: Ben and Gus. First, Ben seems to be worse or the most expert one of both assassins in the play. Ben has authority on Gus, who is younger, has a rather more timid or weak character than Ben. Gus thinks that Ben is like a great brother or greater of his, he accepts without thinking any type of order that Ben gives. Wilson is a secondary personage who has the mission to warn Ben and Gus of the arrival of its victim. Nothing more is known of him to just as Ben that we either do not know anything of his physical aspect, of his clothes, not anything else.

PLOT AND SUMMARY

The play narrates the history of two assassins who are in an old kitchen of a coffee, in Birmingham. There they prepare its "mission", that is of to assassinates a person. While they anxiously wait for its victim, Ben and Gus speak of multiple subjects, like sport, food… In this situation, they find a machine, an elevator (the dumb waiter), and using it a man sends a series of notes that were the orders that requested them of the first floor (these notes talking about food). For that reason, Ben decides to give all the food that they has. This decision of Ben was not to the liking of Gus because he eats a lot. In one of the notes that requested tea to them, they discover that there is a tube that communicates floors, for that reason they decide to call to a man which is the one who has to warn them which the person who they are going to assassinate comes. That man is Wilson, who was in the first floor. At the end, Gus goes for a glass of water, and when he returns, he sees Ben, who is aim him with his revolver.

SPACE AND TIME

The play takes place in the kitchen of a coffee in Birmingham. The history passes in order, action by action.

LITERARY RESOURCES

How we have named well before, it is a very similar play to the one of Beckett Waiting for Godot , since in they only appear two personages. For this reason, the language that the authors use, in this case Harold Pinter, is a language quite simple and usual, with a lot of repetitions. Moreover, we can emphasize the use of the silence that Pinter makes in his plays. We see it in the dialogues, in all the play, because the silence expresses a lot in Pinter’s plays. And the end occurs in silence, too.

PERSONAL OPINION

This play has similitudes with another play of Beckett, Waiting for Godot. I express it before, but I can make other similitude, like their characters talk about usual things (food…). I consider that this play is very interesting because the author expresses all in a short time. This is a good characteristic thing of his author, Harold Pinter. Ben and Gus are the characters. Ben is more domineering, but he is subdued to Wilson, who is the boss. And Gus, in a part, has more liberty than Ben, and he is concerned by the troubles that appear each day (we can see it when he read the newspaper). In my opinion, is a good play, that in a short time, can do that we amusing with it.

THE COLLECTION

AUTHOR: Harold Pinter

TITLE: The Collection (around 1960).

EDITORIAL: University photocopies.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

In this play, we have four characters:

-Harry Kane, who is 40 years old. He met Bill in a slum, and he gave him a home, and a job. They are very good friends. He lives in an elegant house in Belgravia.

-Bill Lloyd, who is about 30 years old. He lives with Harry. He is a dress designer, and he is a bit famous. He has a particular sense of humour.

-James Hawkins, who is about 30 years old. He is married with Stella. But he is jealous. He says that his wife and other men were together when they were in the same hotel in Leeds. His wife is a dress designer, too, and she was in Leeds for work. And in this hotel was Bill, too. And James believes that they were together.

-Stella, is James wife. She is about 30 years, too. She is a dress designer. She loves James, but he is jealous. Stella denies all the things that her husband says of Bill and her.

PLOT AND SUMMARY

In this play, James blames her wife for infidelity. He thinks that she and other dress designer (Bill) were together in Leeds. At the beginning, James rings to Bill’s house to talk with him because he thinks that her wife and he were together in a hotel. And James goes to Bill’s house to say him if that is true. Bill denies all. But James says that Stella tells him these. After that, Bill says that it occurred, but he says that he didn’t know that she was married. Moreover, Harry doesn’t believe James, and he goes to see Stella. She says to Harry that it isn’t true, that James thinks it but it doesn’t occur. Harry says it to Bill and James. Bill confirms this. After all, James wants to apologize for all, and in this moment, Bill tells the truth: they were in the same hotel, talking for hours…talking about what they do if they were in her room, but only talking. James is quiet. He says it to her wife, and she says nothing.

SPACE AND TIME

The play takes place in three areas that are former in the stage. In the left, Harry’s house that shows the living room, the hall, the front door, a part of the staircase and a part of the kitchen. In right, we can see in the representations James flat that shows the living room. In the centre of the stage we can see a telephone box.

The play passes in several days. The actions occur in order, day after day.

LITERARY RESOURCES

We find in this play a very simple language, easy, daily and usual. It makes this in an easy play to read, and interesting, too. We can underline the short phrases that say the characters, and the pauses that the author introduces in the play, because the silence can mean a lot of things.

PERSONAL OPINION

I think that it is a good play, because is short, easy and amusing. Harold Pinter wants to represent the society, the muddles and the affaires that occur daily in reality. And this history is a representation of this. Using this history, in this play, Pinter reflects the contradiction true-false. This play is similar to life in this point, because life is always full of trues and lies. And in this case, we can’t distinguish what is true and what is false (Stella can lie, or can say the truth). In my opinion, the end is confusing, because we don’t know what the truth is. I think that it is for represent this society, where predominates the lies. And we can choose what our final is, if we want that the infidelity is true or false.