Party
Time
Party time,
1991.
A tragedy in
one act.
Faber &
Faber,
To describe the characters of this play,
we are to organise them in groups like the way that they appear in the play. In
order of appearance, the first group is formed by Terry, Gavin, Dusty and
Melissa; they are talking about the club. The second group is formed by Lizz and
Charlotte and they are talking about a boy who she fall in love. The final group
is form by Fred and Douglas; they are talking about their job. The main character only appears at the
end of the play, his name is Jimmy and he is Dusty’s brother. Jimmy is dead and
I think that he was murdered because this play is developed in a time of
war.
This play takes place in Gavin’s flat.
There are different dialogues and it seems to be that they are of no importance
but really I think that this is not truth. If we realise that the political
situation in this play is a war (“Melissa: The town’s dead. There’s nobody on
the streets, there’s not a soul in sight, apart from some… soldiers. My driver
had to stop at a … you know … what do you call it... a roadblock. We had to say
who we were…it really was a trifle….”), we can understand because the
characters are talking about things that seem to be silly conversations, they
talk about this to forgive the war; they do not want to remember what is
occurring around them. They speak to the club, their jobs, their loves, but
nobody wants to talk about Jimmy. Dusty is always asking where his brother is,
but nobody answers her. Especially Terry and Gavin who always avoid it: “Dusty: Did you hear what’s happened to
Jimmy? (…). Terry: Nothing’s happened. Dusty: Nothing? Gavin: Nobody is
discussing this. Nobody’s discussing it, sweetie. Do you follow me? Nothing’s
happened to Jimmy. Ad if you’re not a good girl I’ll spank
you.”
At
the end of the play light disappears and Jimmy arrives, who is dead: “Jimmy: (…) I hear a heartbeat. It is
probably not my heartbeat. It is probably someone else’s heart beat.” I
think that Jimmy was murdered.
Pinter does
not explain where is the place in where is situated the play, only says that it
is a Gavin’s flat.
The social-political situation that we
find in this play is a situation of a war. The characters try to forgive it
talking about things that can result for us silly things, but for they is a way to escape their problems.
Another important aspect of Party Time is Jimmy’s dead. Pinter say nothing about this question and gives us the idea to
conclude the main plot. I think that Gavin and Terry are the murders, not only
for the reason of that they do not like to talk about him. Also Jimmy’s ghost
appears in Gavin’s flat. Maybe this wants to be that Jimmy’s cadaver is in this
flat.
For conclusion, I think that this play is
very complicated to understand, everybody is talking about different things to
forget the reality. Jimmy’s character is also strange and the strangest of this
play is the end. What did Pinter want to tell with this end, with this play? We
only will know the answer if Pinter decides to explain to
us.