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Harold Pinter
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===="Comedies of menace" (1957–1968)==== Pinter's first play, ''[[The Room (play)|The Room]]'', written and first performed in 1957, was a student production at the [[University of Bristol]], directed by his good friend, actor [[Henry Woolf]], who also originated the role of Mr. Kidd (which he reprised in 2001 and 2007).<ref name=Plays/> After Woolf mentioned that he had an idea for a play, he asked Pinter to write it so that he could direct it to fulfill a requirement for his postgraduate work.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bowker |first1=Gordon |title=Glimpses of a Biographer's Diaries 1961 – 2000 |date=2025 |publisher=Ramdei Bowker |location=London |isbn=978-1-0684423-9-1 |pages=471 |edition=Kindle |url=https://amzn.eu/d/5ZNvFdY |access-date=22 March 2025}}</ref> Pinter wrote it in three days.<ref name=MerrittWoolf>Merritt, "Talking about Pinter" 147.</ref> The production was described by Billington as "a staggeringly confident debut which attracted the attention of a young producer, [[Michael Codron]], who decided to present Pinter's next play, ''[[The Birthday Party (play)|The Birthday Party]]'', at the [[Lyric Hammersmith]], in 1958."<ref name=Billobit>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/dec/25/pinter-theatre |title=The most provocative, poetic and influential playwright of his generation |first=Michael |last=Billington |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=25 December 2008 |publisher=[[Guardian Media Group|GMG]] |location=London |issn=0261-3077 |oclc=60623878 |access-date=27 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110227094739/http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/dec/25/pinter-theatre |archive-date=27 February 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Written in 1957 and produced in 1958, Pinter's second play, ''The Birthday Party'', one of his best-known works, was initially both a commercial and critical disaster, despite an enthusiastic review in ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' by its influential drama critic [[Harold Hobson]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Hobson |first=Harold |title=The Screw Turns Again |newspaper=The Sunday Times |date=25 May 1958 |location=London}}</ref> which appeared only after the production had closed and could not be reprieved.<ref name=Billobit/><ref>Hobson, "The Screw Turns Again"; cited by Merritt in "Sir Harold Hobson: The Promptings of Personal Experience", ''Pinter in Play'' 221–25; rpt. in {{cite web |url=http://www.haroldpinter.org/plays/plays_bdayparty.shtml |title=The Birthday Party – Premiere |first=Harold |last=Hobson |work=haroldpinter.org |year=2011 |access-date=27 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709085019/http://www.haroldpinter.org/plays/plays_bdayparty.shtml |archive-date=9 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Critical accounts often quote Hobson: {{blockquote|I am well aware that Mr Pinter[']s play received extremely bad notices last Tuesday morning. At the moment I write these [words] it is uncertain even whether the play will still be in the bill by the time they appear, though it is probable it will soon be seen elsewhere. Deliberately, I am willing to risk whatever reputation I have as a judge of plays by saying that ''The Birthday Party'' is not a Fourth, not even a Second, but a First [as in Class Honours]; and that Pinter, on the evidence of his work, possesses the most original, disturbing and arresting talent in theatrical London ... Mr Pinter and ''The Birthday Party'', despite their experiences last week, will be heard of again. Make a note of their names.}} Pinter himself and later critics generally credited Hobson as bolstering him and perhaps even rescuing his career.<ref>Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 85; Gussow, ''Conversations with Pinter'' 141.</ref> In a review published in 1958, borrowing from the subtitle of ''The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace'', a play by [[David Campton]], critic [[Irving Wardle]] called Pinter's early plays "[[comedy of menace]]"—a label that people have applied repeatedly to his work.<ref name=Merritt3>Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 5, 9, 225–26, and 310.</ref> Such plays begin with an apparently innocent situation that becomes both threatening and "[[Absurdism|absurd]]" as Pinter's characters behave in ways often perceived as inexplicable by his audiences and one another. Pinter acknowledges the influence of [[Samuel Beckett]], particularly on his early work; they became friends, sending each other drafts of their works in progress for comments.<ref name = Wark /><ref name=BillingtonWark>See Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 64, 65, 84, 197, 251 and 354</ref> Pinter wrote ''[[The Hothouse]]'' in 1958, which he shelved for over 20 years (See "Overtly political plays and sketches" below). Next he wrote ''[[The Dumb Waiter]]'' (1959), which premièred in Germany and was then produced in a [[double bill]] with ''The Room'' at the [[Hampstead Theatre|Hampstead Theatre Club]], in London, in 1960.<ref name="Plays"/> It was then not produced often until the 1980s, and it has been revived more frequently since 2000, including the [[West End theatre|West End]] [[Trafalgar Studios]] production in 2007. The first production of ''[[The Caretaker (play)|The Caretaker]]'', at the [[Arts Theatre|Arts Theatre Club]], in London, in 1960, established Pinter's theatrical reputation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://roundabouttheatre.org/fc/fall03/jones.htm |title=Roundabout Theatre Company – |first=David |last=Jones |work=Front & Center Online |publisher=Roundabout Theatre Company |date=Fall 2003 |access-date=27 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727223238/http://roundabouttheatre.org/fc/fall03/jones.htm |archive-date=27 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The play transferred to the [[Duchess Theatre]] in May 1960 and ran for 444 performances,<ref name=sheffcare>{{cite web |title=Background to The Caretaker |url=http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/creativedevelopmentprogramme/productions/thecaretaker/background.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090514101843/http://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/creativedevelopmentprogramme/productions/thecaretaker/background.shtml |archive-date=14 May 2009 |work=Sheffield Theatres education resource |publisher=Sheffield Theatres |access-date=11 July 2011}}</ref> receiving an [[Evening Standard Award]] for best play of 1960.<ref>{{cite web |last=Shama |first=Sunita |title=Pinter awards saved for the nation |url=http://www.mla.gov.uk/news_and_views/press_releases/2010/Pinter_awards |work=British Library Press Release |publisher=Museums Arts and Libraries |access-date=11 July 2011 |date=20 October 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727121002/http://www.mla.gov.uk/news_and_views/press_releases/2010/Pinter_awards |archive-date=27 July 2011}}</ref> Large radio and television audiences for his one-act play ''[[A Night Out (play)|A Night Out]]'', along with the popularity of his revue sketches, propelled him to further critical attention.<ref>Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 18.</ref> In 1964, ''The Birthday Party'' was revived both on television (with Pinter himself in the role of Goldberg) and on stage (directed by Pinter at the [[Aldwych Theatre]]) and was well received.<ref>Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 18, 219–20.</ref> By the time Peter Hall's London production of ''The Homecoming'' (1964) reached [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1967, Pinter had become a celebrity playwright, and the play garnered four [[Tony Award]]s, among other awards.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tonyawards.com/p/tonys_search?start=0&year=&award=&lname=&fname=&show=%3Ci%3EThe+Homecoming%3C%2Fi%3E |title=The Homecoming – 1967 |work=tonyawards.com |publisher=Tony Award Productions |year=2011 |access-date=3 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201140353/https://www.tonyawards.com/p/tonys_search?start=0&year=&award=&lname=&fname=&show=%3Ci%3EThe+Homecoming%3C%2Fi%3E |archive-date=1 December 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> During this period, Pinter also wrote the radio play ''[[A Slight Ache]]'', first broadcast on the [[BBC Third Programme]] in 1959 and then adapted to the stage and performed at the [[Arts Theatre|Arts Theatre Club]] in 1961. ''A Night Out'' (1960) was broadcast to a large audience on [[ABC Weekend TV]]'s television show ''[[Armchair Theatre]]'', after being transmitted on BBC Radio 3, also in 1960. His play ''[[Night School (play)|Night School]]'' was first televised in 1960 on [[Associated Rediffusion]]. ''[[The Collection (play)|The Collection]]'' premièred at the [[Aldwych Theatre]] in 1962, and ''The Dwarfs'', adapted from Pinter's then unpublished novel of the same title, was first broadcast on radio in 1960, then adapted for the stage (also at the Arts Theatre Club) in a double bill with ''[[The Lover (play)|The Lover]]'', which had previously been televised by Associated Rediffusion in 1963; and ''[[Tea Party (play)|Tea Party]]'', a play that Pinter developed from his 1963 short story, first broadcast on [[BBC TV]] in 1965.<ref name=Plays/> Working as both a screenwriter and as a playwright, Pinter composed a script called ''[[The Basement (play)#Origin: "The Compartment"|The Compartment]]'' (1966), for a trilogy of films to be contributed by [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Eugène Ionesco]], and Pinter, of which only Beckett's film, titled ''[[Film (film)|Film]]'', was actually produced. Then Pinter turned his unfilmed script into a television play, which was produced as ''[[The Basement (play)|The Basement]]'', both on [[BBC 2]] and also on stage in 1968.<ref name=BRChronology>Baker and Ross, "Chronology" xxiii–xl.</ref>
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