Harold Pinter, página 2 de 5

Harold Pinter''s first and only novel, written in the early 1950s before he began writing plays. The novel is set in post-war London''s East End, a landscape of bomb-sites, and describes the lives of four young Londoners whose energy and humour lift them above the routine austerity of the time.

At the heart of this second volume of Harold Pinters collected work is The Caretaker, the play with which he had his first major success. The obsessive caretaker, Davies, is a classic comic creation and his uneasy relationship with the enigmatic Aston and Mick a landmark in twentieth-century drama. The book, which has an introduction by the playwright himself, also includes two television plays, The Collection and The Lover, and several other shorter pieces from the same period.

Le prime rappresentazioni delle opere di Harold Pinter furono letteralmente stroncate da quasi tutta la critica.Si scrisse che era un autore eccentrico, inaccettabile, incomprensibile, che non aveva nulla da dire. Oggi e forse l''autore vivente piu rappresentato al mondo ma, come lui stesso tiene a sottolineare: "Adesso sono diventato comprensibile, accettabile, eppure le mie commedie sono sempre le stesse di allora. Non ho cambiato una sola battuta!" In quest''opera sono raccolti i testi che hanno rivelato il drammaturgo inglese e ne hanno decretato poi il successo internazionale in quanto erede e continuatore di maestri come Beckett, Genet e Ionesco.

Nei primi mesi del 1972 Nicole Stéphane, che possedeva i diritticinematografici di "Alla ricerca del tempo perduto", chiede al regista JosephLosey se gli sarebbe piaciuto lavorare ad una versione cinematografica dellibro. E Losey ne propone la sceneggiatura ad Harold Pinter, gia suo strettocollaboratore per "Il servo", "L'incidente" e "Messaggero d'amore". Dopo averletto la "Recherche", nell'estate del 1972 Pinter compie numerosi viaggi inFrancia: a Illiers, a Cabourg, a Parigi, per "impregnarsi" dei luoghiproustiani. In novembre la sceneggiatura e terminata e, dopo ulteriori tagli elimature, agli inizi del 1973 la versione rivista e pronta e definitiva.

This is the first important revival of a piece disgracefully undervalued when it appeared 13 years ago. Harold Pinter has admittedly written more forcefully; but none of his plays, not even The Caretaker or Old Times, has the emotional density of Betrayal. As David Leveauxs wary production confirms, there is hardly a line into which desire, pain, alarm, sorrow, rage or some kind of blend of feelings has not been compressed like volatile gas in a cylinder less stable than it looks. What upset the reviewers in 1978 was subject matter that seemed annoyingly futuristic. The plot harked back to a theatrical period when dramatists were obsessed by love-triangles which, if not eternal, were certainly interminable. Yet since the story started after a mans affair with his best friends wife had finished, ended with its beginning, and in between lopped this way and that through time, Betrayal was also dismissed as gimmicky. The answer is that Pinters narrative method takes "what next?" out of the spectators mind and replaces it with the rather deeper "how?" and "why?". Why did love pass How did these people cope with the lies, the evasions, the sudden dangers, the panic, and the contradictory feelings behind their own deftly engineered masks? The plays subject is not sex, not even adultery, but the politics of betrayal and the damage it inflicts on all involved. Even by Pinters standards, those politics become pretty intricate. For instance, we learn early on that the old friend, Robert, has known for years of his wife Emmas affair. She knows he knows, but her lover Jerry does not know he knows or that she know he knows. See what I mean? A lunch between the two men, Jerry fake-innocently asking after Emma, Robert seeing through the ruse yet humouring him, seethes with unexpressed guilt and anger. Almost all the plays encounters are similarly charged. It is like watching Kasparov circle Karpovs queen, not knowing when, how or if he will pounce.

Harold Pinters plays are lauded the world over but, until now, little has been gathered together of his other writings. Various Voices presents a wealth of material and a multiplicity of form in which to enjoy the crystal clarity of language and style which marks out Pinter as a true original. Through Various Voices the reader can trace Pinters development from a nascent writer exploring the boundaries of his craft to the assured maturity of his later work.Various Voices comprises Pinters own selection of his prose, prose fiction, poetry and political writings. His prose choices range from the marvellously erudite A Note on Shakespeare (1950), to a celebration of cricket and cricketers in Len Hutton and the Past (1969); his short stories begin with the subtle dialogue of Kullus (1949) and end with Girls (1995); his poetry starts with School Life (1948) and travels through the years to the powerful and moving Death (1997); and his political writings, including many of his letters to the editor, illustrate the depth and sincerity of his long-held views on a number of human rights issues around the world. This is an essential companion to Pinters plays and enables the reader to fully appreciate the breadth and depth of a body of work spanning a period of fifty years.

Si Dante pren Virgili com a guia per a la seva travessia poètica, Pinter s'endinsa en el particular descens als inferns contemporanis que es "Terra de Ningú".

"Betrayal is a new departure and a bold one...Pinter has found a way of making memory active and dramatic, giving an audience the experience of the mind's accelerating momentum as it pieces together the past with a combination of curiosity and regret. He shows man betrayed not only by man, but by time - a recurring theme which has found its proper scenic correlative...Pinter captures the psyche's sly manoeuvres for self-respect with a sardonic forgiveness ...a master craftsman honouring his talent by setting it new, difficult tasks". (New Society). "There is hardly a line into which desire, pain, alarm, sorrow, rage or some kind of blend of feelings has not been compressed, like volatile gas in a cylinder less stable than it looks...Pinter's narrative method takes "what's next?" out of the spectator's and replaces it with the rather deeper "how?" and "why?" Why did love pass? How did these people cope with the lies, the evasions, the sudden dangers, panic and the contradictory feelings behind their own deftly engineered masks? The play's subject is not sex, not even adultery, but the politics of betrayal and the damage it inflicts on all involved." (The Times). First staged at the National Theatre in 1978, Betrayal was revived at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 1991. Twenty years after its first showing, it returned to the National in 1998.

Unico romanzo del commediografo inglese, I nani e stato scritto nei primi anni'50, e poi abbandonato per quasi quarant'anni. Nel 1960 Pinter ne ha trattouna commedia e soltanto nel 1989 lo ha ripreso in mano, lasciandolosostanzialmente immutato, ma decidendo di pubblicarlo. E un testo denso edimpegnativo, che anticipa molti dei temi della produzione teatraledell'autore. Dominato dai dialoghi, discorsi fatti di salti, silenzi,argomenti abbandonati e ripresi, sullo sfondo della Londra cupa dell'East End,mette in scena quattro personaggi, tre uomini e una donna, alle presesoprattutto con la loro impossibilita di comunicare.

The work of our best living playwright in its command of the language and its power to erect a coherent structure in a twilight zone of confusion and dismay.The Times Do Hirst and Spooner really know each other, or are they performing an elaborate charade? The ambiguity - and the comedy - intensify with the arrival of Briggs and Foster. All four inhabit a no-mans-land between time present and a time remembered, between reality and imagination.No Mans Land was first presented at the National Theatre at the Old Vic, London, in 1975, revived at the Almeida Theatre, London, with Harold Pinter as Hirst and revived by the National Theatre, directed by Harold Pinter, in 2001.

Mountain Language and Ashes to Ashes were presented as a double-bill at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2001. Acclaim for Mountain Language:Extraordinarily economical and extraordinarily chilling.Sunday TelegraphAshes to Ashes:This dark, elegiac play, studded with brutally and swaggeringly funny jokes, is one of Pinters most haunting works.Sunday TimesAshes to Ashes is an extraordinarily powerful work: elusive, mesmeric, disturbing.Guardian