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Harold Pinter
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==Posthumous events== ===Funeral=== [[File:Grave of Harold Pinter in Kensal Green Cemetery.jpg|thumb|upright|Grave of Harold Pinter in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]]]] Pinter's funeral was a private, half-hour secular ceremony conducted at the graveside at [[Kensal Green Cemetery]], 31 December 2008. The eight readings selected in advance by Pinter included passages from seven of his own writings and from the story "[[The Dead (Joyce short story)|The Dead]]", by [[James Joyce]], which was read by actress [[Penelope Wilton]]. [[Michael Gambon]] read the "photo album" speech from ''No Man's Land'' and three other readings, including Pinter's poem "Death" (1997). Other readings honoured Pinter's widow and his love of cricket.<ref name=Goodnight/> The ceremony was attended by many notable theatre people, including [[Tom Stoppard]], but not by Pinter's son, Daniel Brand. At its end, Pinter's widow, Antonia Fraser, stepped forward to his grave and quoted from [[Horatio (character)|Horatio]]'s speech after the death of [[Prince Hamlet|Hamlet]]: "Goodnight, sweet prince, / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."<ref name=Goodnight/> ===Memorial tributes=== The night before Pinter's burial, theatre marquees on Broadway dimmed their lights for a minute in tribute,<ref name=Friends>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/7805812.stm |title=Friends bid Pinter final farewell |last=Staff |work=[[BBC News]] |date=31 December 2008 |publisher=[[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] |location=London |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730042522/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/7805812.stm |archive-date=30 July 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and on the final night of ''No Man's Land'' at the Duke of York's Theatre on 3 January 2009, all of the [[Ambassador Theatre Group]] in the West End dimmed their lights for an hour to honour the playwright.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/22984/pinter-to-be-honoured-before-final |title=The Stage / News / Pinter to be honoured before final performance of No Man's Land |first=Alistair |last=Smith |work=thestage.co.uk |publisher=The Stage Newspaper Limited |location=London |date=2 January 2009 |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612044629/http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/22984/pinter-to-be-honoured-before-final |archive-date=12 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> <!-- Commented out as reference is no longer online and nor at Internet archive. The [[Sydney Festival]], Dublin's Gate Theatre, and the [[Sydney Theatre Company]], whose co-artistic directors are Australian actress [[Cate Blanchett]] and her husband, [[Andrew Upton]], on 1 February, gave a free, hour-long tribute performance of readings from Pinter's works. It was directed and introduced by Colgan and featured Blanchett, fellow Australian actor Robert Menzies (grandson of former Australian Prime Minister [[Robert Menzies]]), and others.<ref name=McCallum>John McCallum, [http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090629233230/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24994048-16947,00.html "Companies Recall Good Ghost of Pinter"], ''[[The Australian|Australian]]'', [[News Limited]], 2 February 2009. Retrieved 14 April 2009.</ref> --> [[Diane Abbott]], the [[Member of Parliament (UK)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Hackney North and Stoke Newington (UK Parliament constituency)|Hackney North & Stoke Newington]] proposed an [[early day motion]] in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] to support a residents' campaign to restore the Clapton Cinematograph Theatre, established in [[Lower Clapton|Lower Clapton Road]] in 1910, and to turn it into a memorial to Pinter "to honour this Hackney boy turned literary great."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dianeabbott.org.uk/news/press/news.aspx?p=102369 |title=Diane Abbott Calls for Pinter Cinema |work=dianeabbott.org.uk |year=2011 |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929013913/http://www.dianeabbott.org.uk/news/press/news.aspx?p=102369 |archive-date=29 September 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> On 2 May 2009, a free public memorial tribute was held at [[CUNY Graduate Center|The Graduate Center]] of The [[City University of New York]]. It was part of the 5th Annual [[PEN World Voices|PEN World Voices Festival]] of International Literature, taking place in New York City.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/3239/prmID/1831 |title=PEN American Center – Tribute to Harold Pinter |work=pen.org |date=2 May 2009 |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714015021/http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/3239/prmID/1831 |archive-date=14 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Another memorial celebration, held in the Olivier Theatre, at the [[Royal National Theatre]], in London, on the evening of 7 June 2009, consisted of excerpts and readings from Pinter's writings by nearly three dozen actors, many of whom were his friends and associates, including: [[Eileen Atkins]], [[David Bradley (English actor)|David Bradley]], [[Colin Firth]], [[Henry Goodman]], [[Sheila Hancock]], [[Alan Rickman]], [[Penelope Wilton]], [[Susan Wooldridge]], and [[Henry Woolf]]; and a troupe of students from the [[London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art]], directed by Ian Rickson.<ref name="A Celebration">{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qby7v |title=BBC Two Programmes – Arena, Harold Pinter – A Celebration |work=[[BBC]] |year=2009 |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100121193519/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qby7v |archive-date=21 January 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Coveney>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/harold-pinter-a-celebration-national-theatre-london-1700071.html |title=Harold Pinter: a celebration, National Theatre, London |first=Michael |last=Coveney |work=[[The Independent]] |date=9 June 2009 |publisher=[[Independent News & Media|INM]] |location=London |issn=0951-9467 |oclc=185201487 |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518090602/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/harold-pinter-a-celebration-national-theatre-london-1700071.html |archive-date=18 May 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> On 16 June 2009, Antonia Fraser officially opened a commemorative room at the [[Hackney Empire]]. The theatre also established a writer's residency in Pinter's name.<ref name=Jury>{{cite web |url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23708548-harold-pinter-honoured-by-hackney-empire.do |title=Harold Pinter honoured by Hackney Empire |first=Louise |last=Jury |work=thisislondon.co.uk |date=17 June 2009 |publisher=ES London Limited |location=London |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606080711/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23708548-harold-pinter-honoured-by-hackney-empire.do |archive-date=6 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Most of issue number 28 of [[Craig Raine]]'s Arts Tri-Quarterly ''[[Areté]]'' was devoted to pieces remembering Pinter, beginning with Pinter's 1987 unpublished love poem dedicated "To Antonia" and his poem "Paris", written in 1975 (the year in which he and Fraser began living together), followed by brief memoirs by some of Pinter's associates and friends, including [[Patrick Marber]], [[Nina Raine]], [[Tom Stoppard]], [[Peter Nichols (playwright)|Peter Nichols]], [[Susanna Gross]], [[Richard Eyre]], and David Hare.<ref>''[[Areté]]'' 28 (Spring/Summer 2009): 17–89. {{ISBN|978-0-9554553-8-4}}.</ref> A memorial cricket match at [[Lord's Cricket Ground]] between the Gaieties Cricket Club and the Lord's Taverners, followed by performances of Pinter's poems and excerpts from his plays, took place on 27 September 2009.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/6255151/Lords-tribute-was-celebration-of-Harold-Pinters-two-great-loves-cricket-and-literature.html |title=Lord's tribute was celebration of Harold Pinter's two great loves: cricket and literature – Telegraph |first=Ed |last=Smith |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=2 October 2009 |location=London |issn=0307-1235 |oclc=49632006 |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519171448/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/6255151/Lords-tribute-was-celebration-of-Harold-Pinters-two-great-loves-cricket-and-literature.html |archive-date=19 May 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2009, [[English PEN]] established the [[PEN/Pinter Prize|PEN Pinter Prize]], which is awarded annually to a British writer or a writer resident in Britain who, in the words of Pinter's Nobel speech, casts an 'unflinching, unswerving' gaze upon the world, and shows a 'fierce intellectual determination ... to define the real truth of our lives and our societies'. The prize is shared with an international writer of courage. The inaugural winners of the prize were [[Tony Harrison]] and the Burmese poet and comedian [[Zarganar|Maung Thura (a.k.a. Zarganar)]].<ref>[https://www.englishpen.org/prizes/pen-pinter-prize/ PEN Pinter Prize], English PEN website.</ref> ===''Being Harold Pinter''=== In January 2011 ''Being Harold Pinter'', a theatrical collage of excerpts from Pinter's dramatic works, his Nobel Lecture, and letters of Belarusian prisoners, created and performed by the [[Belarus Free Theatre]], evoked a great deal of attention in the [[public media]]. The Free Theatre's members had to be smuggled out of [[Minsk]], owing to a government crackdown on dissident artists, to perform their production in a two-week sold-out engagement at [[La MaMa]] in New York as part of the 2011 [[Under the Radar Festival]]. In an additional sold-out benefit performance at the [[Public Theater]], co-hosted by playwrights [[Tony Kushner]] and [[Tom Stoppard]], the prisoner's letters were read by ten guest performers: [[Mandy Patinkin]], [[Kevin Kline]], [[Olympia Dukakis]], [[Lily Rabe]], [[Linda Emond]], [[Josh Hamilton (actor)|Josh Hamilton]], [[Stephen Spinella]], [[Lou Reed]], [[Laurie Anderson]], and [[Philip Seymour Hoffman]].<ref name=BFT>{{cite web |url=http://broadwayworld.com/article/Kline_Hoffman_et_al_Lend_Support_to_Belarus_Free_Theater_with_BEING_HAROLD_PINTER_Benefit_at_The_Public_Tonight_117_20110117 |title=Kline, Hoffman et al. Lend Support to Belarus Free Theater with 'Being Harold Pinter' Benefit at The Public Tonight, 1/17 |work=broadwayworld.com |date=17 January 2011 |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120505094146/http://broadwayworld.com/article/Kline_Hoffman_et_al_Lend_Support_to_Belarus_Free_Theater_with_BEING_HAROLD_PINTER_Benefit_at_The_Public_Tonight_117_20110117 |archive-date=5 May 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In solidarity with the Belarus Free Theatre, collaborations of actors and theatre companies joined in offering additional benefit readings of ''Being Harold Pinter'' across the United States.<ref name=Gunderson>{{cite web |url=https://huffingtonpost.com/lauren-gunderson/countrywide-free-theatre-_b_809947.html |title=Countrywide, Free Theatre Stands up to Dictators |first=Lauren |last=Gunderson |work=huffingtonpost.com |date=19 January 2011 |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110402215205/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-gunderson/countrywide-free-theatre-_b_809947.html |archive-date=2 April 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> ===The Harold Pinter Theatre, London=== In September 2011, British Theatre owners, [[Ambassador Theatre Group]] (ATG) announced it was renaming its ''Comedy Theatre'', Panton Street, London to become ''The [[Harold Pinter Theatre]]''. [[Howard Panter]], Joint CEO and Creative Director of ATG told the [[BBC]], "The work of Pinter has become an integral part of the history of the Comedy Theatre. The re-naming of one of our most successful West End theatres is a fitting tribute to a man who made such a mark on British theatre who, over his 50 year career, became recognised as one of the most influential modern British dramatists."<ref>{{cite news |title=Harold Pinter has London theatre named after him |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14827867 |access-date=8 September 2011 |work=BBC News |date=7 September 2011 |publisher=BBC |location=London}}</ref>
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