The Birthday Party, Harold Pinter
“The Birthday Party” by Harold Pinter is about Stanley Webber, an erstwhile piano player in his 30s, who lives in a rundown boarding house, run by Meg and Petey Boles, in an English seaside town. Two sinister strangers, Goldberg and McCann, who arrive supposedly on his birthday and who appear to have come looking for him, turn Stanley’s apparently innocuous birthday party organized by Meg into a nightmare.
Every character in “The Birthday Party” keeps asking the same and meaningless questions, therefore, throughout the entire play, no real conversations are had. They say whatever they want, they do not listen to others, and they interpret another’s dialogue into something they want to hear.
Meg ends the play by reminding of herself of how beautiful she was last night, not noticing Stanley’s absence. On Goldberg and McCann’s own authority, they order Stanley to sit, or take his glasses off. The torch, which lights only the small portion of the object, is also the factor that interrupts them to have the complete conversation.
Menacing Quality
Because of the play’s characters who identify as ambiguous and becomes a vanished and washed-out world, with disjointed and absurd information. The menacing quality of this play is presented through the skeletal framework of the house, torn wallpapers, and faded colors. Everything in the house is falling apart, and like its characters, nothing is put together.
Trinity Rep Dowling Theater, 201 Washington Street, Providence, Rhode Island
Every character in “The Birthday Party” keeps asking the same and meaningless questions, therefore, throughout the entire play, no real conversations are had. They say whatever they want, they do not listen to others, and they interpret another’s dialogue into something they want to hear.
Meg ends the play by reminding of herself of how beautiful she was last night, not noticing Stanley’s absence. On Goldberg and McCann’s own authority, they order Stanley to sit, or take his glasses off. The torch, which lights only the small portion of the object, is also the factor that interrupts them to have the complete conversation.
Menacing Quality
Because of the play’s characters who identify as ambiguous and becomes a vanished and washed-out world, with disjointed and absurd information. The menacing quality of this play is presented through the skeletal framework of the house, torn wallpapers, and faded colors. Everything in the house is falling apart, and like its characters, nothing is put together.
Trinity Rep Dowling Theater, 201 Washington Street, Providence, Rhode Island
