Comments on: IN DEFENSE OF HAROLD PINTER’S WORK

By: Catherine Volpe

Catherine Volpe — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 16:35:10 +0000

I am desperately wanting either a DVD or VHS copy of the Birthday Party by Harold Pinter. Do you know of where I could obtain one for the students at St. Margaret’s School East Suffolk Raod, Edinburgh EH16 5PJ.

Cathy Volpe

By: Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » And Now, A Brief Literary Digression

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 01:17:31 +0000

[...] io Fo, after all, can no longer be taken very seriously, no matter who gets it after that. Rick Moran feels much the same: Pinterâ€™s plays were like a [...]

By: Yehudit

Yehudit — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 22:28:28 +0000

I wrote something similar. Also about Sharon Olds, another “progressive” and my favorite poet.
http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2005/10/post_5.html

By: The Glittering Eye

The Glittering Eye — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 19:49:36 +0000

Catching my eye: morning A through Z

Here’s what’s caught my eye this morning:

Gerard Vanderleun of American Digest is back and blogging from his new home in Seattle.
Syrian blogger Ammar Abdulhamid of Heretic’s Blog reacts to the suicide (?) of Syrian Interior Mi…

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 19:47:04 +0000

Harold Pinter is probably England’s greatest living playwright. That he is anti-American just made it a twofer for the Nobel Committee.

It’s not too unusual for artists and writers (particularly poets) to become parodies of themselves if they live long enough. Wordsworth. Another prize-winner—William Butler Yeats.

And that they are otherwise idiots does not reflect on an artist’s work. See Pushkin and Mozart, for example.

By: The Politburo Diktat » Blog Archive » Another Voice on the Nobel Prize for Literature

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:01:15 +0000

[...] rature
by commissar @ 1:01 pm. Filed under Europe & UN, U.S. - General

Right Wing Nut House Â» IN DEFENSE OF HAROLD PINTERâ€™S WORK [...]

By: The MaryHunter

The MaryHunter — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 14:49:05 +0000

“Just because John Updike is a loony lefty that doesnâ€™t make Rabbit Run any less of a joy to read. ”

Very good point, Rick, and this makes me want to FINALLY try and finish the Rabbit cycle. Not sure I’m going to jump joyously into Pinter’s work, but maybe I’ll give it a try… (yea, the kids will be grown someday, and I’ll eventually retire, from blogging as well…)

Indeed, I’ve enjoyed seeing the now-late August Wilson’s plays, even though I didn’t necessarily agree at all with his underlying themes. Man, could Wilson paint belivable, tragic characters!

By: susan

susan — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 13:48:28 +0000

I’m only the actor but the problem with Pinter’s work is that actors cannot ‘act’ pauses. Such intentions come off contrived, which is the only effect Pinter’s work achieves. His words may come across to the reader as ‘ordinary dialogue’, but try to act those ‘pauses’ night after night, week after week, year after year. Pinter’s plays create automotive mechanical engines which need alcohol just to drive the play through to the end. In my personal opinion, one of the main reasons why so many of the modern playwrights fail is because they belive the theater is all about them and forget their voices come from actors, real human beings who have lives of their own.

It is not true that playwrights wrote in stage directions. Stage directions were placed into the plays after the play’s first stage presentation. Actually, wise actors and directors never follow published stage directions and are usually blacked-out before the initial reading. Of course, bad theater will follow each and every ‘pause’ or ’stage direction’ published creating lifeless and predictible theater.

Pinter is as boring as Miller and both will never attain the richness like O’Neill or Williams.