Harold Pinter
He was born in London. He studied a short time at the Royal Academic of Dramatic Art
in London. When he was young he loved the theatre. He wrote several theatrical plays,
however, his first theatrical play was “The Room” in 1957.
I read three plays by Harold Pinter: “The Dumb Waiter”, “Party Time” and “Ashes to
Ashes” (www.epdlp.com/escritor.php?id=2144).
The first aspect in these plays is they are brief. All of them are about forty pages.
Secondly, all his plays live in closed spaces, for example: a room. In the play “The
Dumb Waiter” the characters are in a “basement room”, (page 129), in “Party Time” the
action occurs in “a room of Gavin´s flat” (page 281) and in “Ashes to Ashes”
everything takes place in “a ground-floor room” (page 393).
The third aspect common to Pinter´s plays that draws our attention is the small number
of characters, thus, in “The Dumb Waiter” there are two characters, they are Ben and
Gus, in “Party Time” there are nine characters and in “Ashes to Ashes” we also find two
characters, they are Rebecca and Devlin.
Another aspect worth nothing is the fact that characters maintain repeatedly
Conversations (1) and, sometimes without sense (2), for example, in “The Dumb
Waiter”, Ben and Gus speak about making tea (pages 144 and157) (1), in “Party Time”
while other characters are talking Dusty asked: “Did you hear what´s happened to
Jimmy? What´s happened to Jimmy? However, nobody answered her and they went on
talking, (pages 284 and 296) (1).
A third example is when Dusty and Terry are speaking about boating and one of them
says: “I love boats, I love boating”(…)”I love cooking on boats”(page 295) (2). All his
plays have one main character that without he or she, we would not understand his
plays. For example, Rebecca is the main character in “Ashes to Ashes”.
The language used by the playwright is also important to be mentioned. Characters use
an informal, colloquial style. There are contractions and swearwords (1), and sometimes
the dialogue among them is almost non-existent (2); it shows us in an implied manner
that the characters are common people, in other words, people that do not belong to the
highest society, people that are of the middle class, thus, in “Party Time”, Liz says: “But
that bitch had her legs all over him”( page 288) (1) and in “Ashes to Ashes”, Rebecca
says: “I think you are a fuckpig” (page 398) (1), in “Ashes to Ashes” (pages 397 and
398) (2), in “Party Time” (page 395) (2).
Pinter´s stage directions are very short but very concrete and concise. Most of them are
about space and time, and we also find some others, such as the age that the characters
are, whereas almost not use to explain the actions that the characters do, in other words,
the actions that the characters must perform. (“The Dumb Waiter” page 147, in “Party
Time” pages 281 and 288 and in “Ashes to Ashes” pages 393 and 419). Another stage
direction is that in the course of actions, while the characters are speaking there is a
pause of silence, (in “Party Time” pages 296 and 305, in “Ashes to Ashes” pages 399
and 407), with this Pinter shows us the silence or pause that the characters must keep
during the action.
Another aspect in common is that in his plays there are “two worlds” such as in “Party
Time”. In it there is one world where the characters are, they want not to see the reality
and another that shows the “society”.
And finally the last aspect common to Pinter´s plays is the ending of his plays, they are
open which is as if the playwright wanted us to imagine the end, (in “The Dumb
Waiter” page 165, “Party Time” page 314, in “Ashes to Ashes” page 433).
As a conclusion, we can affirm that Harold Pinter´s plays maintain and have a certain
uniformity. We can also state that the playwright follows more or less the same style.
Nevertheless, there is a change or a certain evolution in his plays which has to do with
the topics her chooses for his plays.