THE DUMB WAITER

Harold Pinter was born on October 10, 1930, in the London borough of Hackney, son of a Jewish dressmaker. His experiences with anti-Semitism were important to his becoming a dramatist. Between ages 9 and 12 during WWII, he was evacuated from London. The experience of wartime bombing has never lost its hold on him. At Hackney Grammar School, he played in school productions, prompting him to choose a career in acting. In 1948 he was accepted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1950, he published his first poems. In 1951 he was accepted at the Central School of Speech and Drama. That same year, he won a place in Anew McMaster’s famous Irish repertory company. Pinter toured again between 1954 and 1957 under the stage name David Baron. He was married to actor Vivien Merchant from 1956-1980, and author/historian Lady Antonia Fraser from 1980 until his death in 2008.

Hist first play, The Room, was presented in Bristol in 1957. Other early plays were The Birthday Party (1957), at first a fiasco of legendary dimensions but later one of his most performed plays, and The Dumb Waiter (1957). His breakthrough came with The Caretaker (1959), followed by The Homecoming (1964) and other plays. Pinter is generally seen as the foremost representative of British drama in the second half of the 20th century. As a modern classic, his name has entered the language as an adjective used to describe a particular atmosphere and environment in drama: “Pinteresque”.

Pinter restored theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of each other and pretence crumbles. With a minimum of plot, drama emerges from the power struggle and hide-and-seek of conversation. His drama was first perceived as a variation of absurd theatre, but has later more aptly been characterized as “comedy of menace”, a genre where the writer allows us to eavesdrop on the play of domination and submission hidden in mundane conversations. In a typical Pinter play, we meet people defending themselves against intrusion or their own impulses by entrenching themselves in a controlled existence.

It is said of Pinter that following an initial period of psychological realism he proceeded to a second, more lyrical phase, and finally to a third, political phase. But this division into periods seems oversimplified and ignores some of his strongest writing. In fact, the continuity in his work is remarkable, and his political themes can be seen as a development of the early Pinter’s analysing of threat and injustice. Since 1973, Pinter has won recognition as a fighter for human rights alongside his writing, often taking stands seen as controversial. He has also written radio plays and screenplays for film and television, as well as making a pioneering contribution as a director. (paraphrased/abbreviated from Nobel Prize website)