'The Birthday Party' by Harold Pinter

TOPIC OF THE BLOG:-

This blog is a part of a thinking activity given by Yesha ma'am from The English Department, MKBU, Bhavnagar. Check out Yesha Bhatt's Blog (Click here) for more information and knowledge about 'The Birthday Party' by Harold Pinter and other works and writers. In this blog I give a YouTube link of my Video which we made on a scene from play 'The Birthday Party' by Harold Pinter.

HAROLD PINTER:-

Harold Pinter was born on October 10, 1930 in London, England and died on December 24, 2008, in London. He was English playwright, who achieved international renown as one of the most complex and challenging post-World War II dramatists. His plays are noted for their use of understatement, small talk, reticence - and even silence - to convey the substance of a character’s thought, which often lies several layers beneath, and contradicts, his speech. In 2005 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was related to a movement named Theatre of Absurd. (Britannica)

NOTABLE WORKS:- 

• “Moonlight” 
• “The Birthday Party”
•  “The Caretaker” 
• “The Dumb Waiter“
•  “The Homecoming” 
• “The Room” and others 

'THE BIRTHDAY PARTY':-

Written by:- Harold Pinter 

Written in:- 1958

Published in:- 1959

Genre:- Drama, Comedy of Menace, Theatre of Absurd

Acts:- 3

Here is a link of the Video which we made in Indian Context.

Let's see something about the play 'The Birthday Party'.

CHARACTERS:-

• STANLEY WEBBER:-

Stanley is a lodger at the Meg and Petey's boarding house. Stanley, in his late thirties, is an unemployed musician, unwilling to leave the boarding house, the nebulous persecutors destroyed his career as a concert pianist in his past. He has grown both slobbish and erratic and although he fantasies about playing in great cities on the world tour, he has no real hope. Laking a piano, he cannot even practice. Stanley, the nominal protagonist of 'The Birthday Party'.

• MEG BOLES:-

She is Petey Boles's wife, pleasant women in her sixties. Sometimes she flirts with Stanley, trying to fill a second void in her life. Meg's marriage to Petey has settled into mechanical routine. Meg tries to win Stanley's approval of her as a woman, shamelessly fishing for compliments. As the play progresses, it becomes clear that Meg, though a mental trivial, is the decent woman and also rather sentimental. 

• PETEY BOLES:-

Like his wife, he is in his sixties too. Petey is a dull and ambitionless, no more inclined than his wife to find challenges beyond the confines of their rooming house. Petey's decency is finally as hopeless as Meg's. At the play's conclusion, he can do nothing but slip back into vapid conversation with his wife. 

• NET GOLDBERG AND DERMONT MCCANN:-

Net Goldberg, in his fifties, is the older of the two strangers who come to interrogate. He affectionately recalls his family and events in his early life. Goldberg's soft heartedness is pure shame. His outward charm and polite manner mask a sadistic nature. His cruelty is first reveal in his interrogation of Stanley. 

Dermont McCann, in his thirties, is Goldberg's younger associate. Unlike Goldberg, he is possibly a defrocked priest. He is also methodical and compulsive, as is revealed in his ritual habit of carefully tearing Petey's newspaper into strips. He somewhere differs from Goldberg, he physically more immediate than Goldberg. He snaps and breaks the glasses of Stanley at the party. 

• LULU:-

A girl in his twenties, she is a neighbour of Meg and Petey. She first appears carrying Stanley's Birthday present, the toy drum and drum sticks. She is self conscious about her sexual appeal and cannot sit still for long without taking out a compact to powder her face. Behind her glamour, there is some youthful innocence to Lulu. 

For summary or analysis read this metrial by Britannica (Click here)

MOVIE REVIEW OF 'THE BIRTHDAY PARTY':-

This adaptation of movie taken from the same named play called 'The Birthday Party' by HAROLD PINTER. This movie released on 9 December, 1968. This movie directed by William Friedkin and produced by Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky. Star cast of the movie are Robert Shaw as Stanley, Patrick Magee as McCann, Dandy Nichols as Meg, Sydney Tafler as Goldberg, Moultrie Kelsall as Petey and Helen Fraser as Lulu. 

WORKS CITED:-

💤 Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Harold Pinter". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Dec. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harold-Pinter