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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
Obviously a class or lecture on this play would have really helped my understanding; alas, my read-for-pleasure mindset can't quite fully comprehend the complicated symbolism, particularly within the last scene. However, I will definitely be mulling this over for a long time. Some hilarity involved too! Feel like this needs to be seen in action to fully immerse oneself.
4/5 stars
Trigger Warning: Attempted r*pe
That was the most absurd thing I have ever read...
Trigger Warning: Attempted r*pe
That was the most absurd thing I have ever read...
My fifth reread and one of my all time favourite Pinter plays. Incredibly menacing, surreal and intriguing.
It started off okay, and then it was just a whirlwind of craziness. 2 stars for now, but I have to go back through this play and analyse it, so maybe my interpretation will change once I've read it in more depth.
From BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3:
Stanley, an erstwhile pianist lives in a dingy seaside boarding house run by Meg and Petey. He is comfortable there, like a surrogate son. Two sinister strangers turn up - Goldberg and McCann. They claim to know him from the past. They turn Stanley's birthday party into a menacing and terrifying encounter. Franz Kafka meets Donald McGill in Pinter’s iconic comedy of menace.
Stanley ..... Toby Jones
Goldberg ..... Henry Goodman
McCann ..... Stephen Rae
Meg ..... Maggie Steed
Petey ..... Peter Wight
Lulu ..... Jaime Winstone
Director/Producer Gary Brown
An Irishman and a Jew walk into a seaside boarding house. And what? A parable about power and persecution? Or maybe it's marginalised minorities taking their revenge against seedy Albion? Pinter's slippery and sly black comedy has a huge resonance for today.
Harold Pinter was one of the writers championed by the Third Programme – and in the late 1950s commissioned one of his early plays before he had his first stage hit. Pinter himself acknowledged the role the Third had had in his own cultural education. For the 70th anniversary, Drama on 3 presents a new production of The Birthday Party, now considered a Pinter classic, but which on its first London opening only lasted a week.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0831fpp
Stanley, an erstwhile pianist lives in a dingy seaside boarding house run by Meg and Petey. He is comfortable there, like a surrogate son. Two sinister strangers turn up - Goldberg and McCann. They claim to know him from the past. They turn Stanley's birthday party into a menacing and terrifying encounter. Franz Kafka meets Donald McGill in Pinter’s iconic comedy of menace.
Stanley ..... Toby Jones
Goldberg ..... Henry Goodman
McCann ..... Stephen Rae
Meg ..... Maggie Steed
Petey ..... Peter Wight
Lulu ..... Jaime Winstone
Director/Producer Gary Brown
An Irishman and a Jew walk into a seaside boarding house. And what? A parable about power and persecution? Or maybe it's marginalised minorities taking their revenge against seedy Albion? Pinter's slippery and sly black comedy has a huge resonance for today.
Harold Pinter was one of the writers championed by the Third Programme – and in the late 1950s commissioned one of his early plays before he had his first stage hit. Pinter himself acknowledged the role the Third had had in his own cultural education. For the 70th anniversary, Drama on 3 presents a new production of The Birthday Party, now considered a Pinter classic, but which on its first London opening only lasted a week.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0831fpp
catchy dialogue, some hilarious moments, interesting tension. Pinter’s not rly my thing though