Author: Harold Pinter

Play: Party Time

Editorial: Faber and Faber

Year of publication: 1991

Place of publication: London

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

TERRY: He looks a powerful man. He is proud, stubborn and discourteous with his wife. In this play, he deals with money’s topic as something very important.

With Gavin, he appears a cultured, elegant and eloquent man. On the contrary, with Dusty, he looks displeased and threatening.

GAVIN: He is the host of that play. He seems like a secondary man if we compare him with Terry. He establishes a nice relationship with Melissa and he has got a good treatment with his guests.

DUSTY: She is a Terry’s wife. She looks like a fashionable woman. In her character, she appears to have a great emotional calmness when she talks to her husband and she is not afraid of his threats. Her way to talk is very fluid.

MELISSA: She is a charismatic and elegant woman, like Dusty. Her way to talk to Terry and Gavin is pleasant. She is interested in what is said and she seems nice in the face of Terry and Gavin.

LIZ: She is a woman who appears on stage sat in a sofa. Opposed to Dusty and Melissa, Liz looks the most materialistic and ordinary side of woman.

CHARLOTTE: She is other woman who appears sat in a sofa with Liz. Her character has two attitudes: first, the attitude that she has with Liz is indifferent. She simply listens to her. On the contrary, she holds up a good conversation with Fred. Here, she looks kind and polite.

FRED: He is a guest of that party. A nice man with Douglas and a courteous man with Charlotte.

DOUGLAS: He has got the character of a fighter man in his life. He wants to fight to get peace and finish war in the world. He is the only one that is interested in that.

JIMMY: This character only appears at the end of the play. He is dead and during all the play, his sister Dusty is asking about him. He talks about how he feels, all that he hears and he wonders what he is.

DEVELOPMENT

This play is talking about luxury, comfort, richness, fame, prestige and high status. It starts in a flat. This flat belongs to one of the play’s characters: Gavin, the host of the party. There, we can find good food, excellent service, elegant furniture and the most important: guests. They represent a society worried for the consequences of war. They fear to lose their good position. It is based on a typical party which may be celebrated by other members of high status. The mystery of this play is the character that appears at the end of the play: Jimmy. He is the victim that represents the politic and social discomfort lived in that time.

Topics are very common: Terry and Gavin have a conversation at the beginning of the play about the comfort of high status, its installations, clubs and barbers. Fred and Charlotte remember a few details about past times…they are small dialogues which represent daily life performed by these characters.

SPACE

This play is developed in an only place: Gavin’s flat. This space is closed, it is developed inside this flat. It is an only space: all the scenes are performed in the same place. It is urban. It is sophisticated. Furniture is stylish: we can see armchairs, sofas and doors.

TIME

The play is performed in an only time. Conversations are parallels. All conversations occur at the same time, but they are performed one after other. A character is talking, but at the same time there is somebody who is talking, too. The play is performed at present time. It is something that occurs in that moment.

It has not jumps. Memories arise in some conversations, but they are related with present. The action is developed at night.

LITERARY RESOURCES

Language is prose. It is a sophisticated language, but it is not complex. A literary resource which may be pointed out in the play is when Jimmy says “the dark is in my mouth and I suck it”. He is not in the darkness. He is illuminated by one of the spotlights. It is a contradiction.

PERSONAL OPINION

From my point of view this play points out very well the materialistic interest that high society has in that time. They only are interested in hold up their richness, their comfort and all that they have got. In spite of the fact that misery exists in the world, they want to fight to hold up that club. They say that the club will not die because it is based on fundamental ideas: “…the clubs died because they were based on ideas which had no moral foundation, no moral foundation whatsoever. But our club is a club which is activated, which is inspired by a moral sense, a moral awareness, a set of moral values which is – I have to say – unshakeable, rigorous, fundamental, constant.” (Melissa).

To finish, I think the Jimmy’s intervention at the end of the play is important to see that reality cannot be hidden. Reality is Jimmy.