Harold Pinter

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Harold Pinter is a British playwright, actor and poet.

Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Life 2 Career 2.1 The Harold Pinter Acting Career 2.2 Acting on stage 2.3 Acting in movies 2.4 Honour 3 Works 3.1 Prose 3.2 Poetry 3.3 Screenplays 3.4 Works about the abysm of human relations 4 Theater of the Absurd 4.1 Harold Pinter: “Night School” (Abendschule) 4.2 Harold Pinter: “Old Times” (Alte Zeiten) 5 Political activities 5.1 Pinter as a political author 5.2 Pinter accuses Bush and Blair state terrorism 6 Nobel Prize for Literature 6.1 “I feel overwhelmed” 6.2 Pinter's Nobel Speech 6.3 Different reactions on Pinter's Nobel speech 7 Miscellaneous 7.1 Pinter in the news 7.2 Quotations 7.3 Quaint 8 Weblinks

[Bearbeiten] Life

Harold Pinter was born in London in Hackney on October 10th, 1930. Hackney is a working-class neighborhood in the east end of London. Both of his parents were Jewish and were born in London. His relationship to his mother was good but he had some problems with his rigorous father. He went to Hackney Downs Grammar School and later on studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He abandoned his studies and in his youth he started to write poetry. In 1956 he married an actress Vivien Merchant. For a while they lived in a slum in Notting Hill Gate. After divorcing his first wife Vivien Merchant in 1980, who died in 1982, he married Lady Antonia Fraser, who was a biographer. His first divorce was responsible for the alienation from his son Daniel, who was a writer and musician. When he became older he started to show interest in politics and so he travelled to Turkey in 1987 and met some victims of the opression and thus he was inspired to write a new play. He also was dedicated to opposing the War in Iraq. In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel prize of literature. He died on December, 24th in 2008.

[Bearbeiten] Career

Pinter started working as an actor at a theater under the stage name of David Baron. His first play "The Room", which he finished in four days, was performed in 1957 by students from the university of Bristol. His second play "The Birthday Party" was also first performed by the University of Bristol in 1957. By now it is one of Pinter's best-known plays, but in the first week it closed with a disastrous rewiev. Pinter's first radio piece "A Slight Ache", was broadcast on BBC in the year 1959. In 1960 he wrote another two plays "The Dumb Waiter" and his second full-length play "The Caretaker". With these two plays Pinter made his breakthrough as a modern talent. In 1974 Harold Pinter also was the director of the film “Butley“. Pinter is considered as the precursor of the "Theater of the Absurd". In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Harold Pinter studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama. After that he mostly played on stage and in some movies and TV films as well. He was quite successful and also earned money as a dish-washer or waiter. His success also came from working as a playwright. He can still be seen in movies and TV productions.

[Bearbeiten] The Harold Pinter Acting Career

After he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama, Harold Pinter worked as an actor.Most of the time under his stage name David Baron. He often supported himself as a waiter in the National Liberal Club, as a dish-washer, and as a door-to-door bookseller. Following his success as a playwriter he continued to act on stage and screen but not so frequently.

[Bearbeiten] Acting on stage

• The Caretaker, 1960, London
• The Homecoming, 1969, Watford
• Old Times, 1985, Los Angeles
• No Man’s Land, 1992, London

[Bearbeiten] Acting in movies

Pinter has made appearances in over 50 movies. These represent only a few selected ones.

• The Caretaker, 1960
• The Servant, 1964
• Accident, 1967
• Turtle Diary, 1985
• Mojo, 1997
• Mansfield Park, 1998
• The Tailer of Panama, 2000 (starring Pierce Brosnan)

[Bearbeiten] Honour

In 1966 he achieved the title Commander Of Britsh Empire (CBE). After having been declined the knighthood in 1996 from the Queen he became a Companion of Honour in the year 2002.

On october 13th 2005 Harold Pinter achieved the Nobel Prize of Literature.(He got recommended from the Swedish Academy).

He also achieved the German Shakespeare Prize in 1970, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1973 and the David Cohen British Literature Prize in 1995, and holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Reading, Glasgow, East Anglia and Bristol.

[Bearbeiten] Works

[Bearbeiten] Prose

• Kullus (1949)
• The Dwarfs (1952-56)
• Latest Reports from the Stock Exchange (1953)
• The Black and White (1954-55)
• The Examination (1955)
• Tea Party (1963)
• The Coast (1975)
• Problem (1976)
• Lola (1977)
• Short Story (1995)
• Girls (1995)
• Sorry About This (1999)
• God's District (1997)
• Tess (2000)
• Voices in the Tunnel (2001)

[Bearbeiten] Poetry

• Poems (1971)
• I Know the Place (1977)
• Poems and Prose 1949-1977 (1978)
• Ten Early Poems (1990)
• 100 Poems by 100 Poets (1992)
• Collected Poems and Prose (1995)
• Cancer Cells (2002)
• Meeting (2002)
• After Lunch (2002)
• "The Disappeared" and Other Poems (2002)
• War (2003)

[Bearbeiten] Screenplays

• "The Room" (1957)
• "The Birthday Party" (1958)
• "The Dumb Waiter" (1959)
• "The Caretaker" (1960)
• "The Lover" (1962)
• "The Servant" (1963)
• "The Homecoming (1965)
• "The Accident" (1967)
• "The Go-Between" (1971)
• "The Last Tycoon" (1974, dir. by Elia Kazan)
• "No Man's Land (1975)
• "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1981, novel by John Fowles)
• "Betrayal" (1982)
• "Turtle Diary" (1985)
• "Mountain Language" (1988)
• "Reunion" (1989)
• "The Handmaid's Tale" (1990)
• "The Comfort of Strangers" (1990)
• "The Trial" (1990)
• "Moonlight" (1993)
• "Ashes to Ashes" (1996)
• "Celebration" (2000)

[Bearbeiten] Works about the abysm of human relations

Since his debut as a dramatist in 1957 the skilled actor Harold Pinter dealt pitiless with the abysms of human relations. An always repeating motive in his pieces is the difficulty to understand each other, the failure of communication and the harassment which always befalls suddenly and unexpected the illusion of the closed world of life. Thereto the committee wrote: “In a typical pinter play we meet people who barricade themselves in their reduced and controlled existence to resist against the external infiltration in their own life.”

With his wide gritted work Pinter is said to be the pathfinder of the dramatic modernity. His most important theatre plays are “The Room” (“Das Zimmer”) written in 1957, “The Caretaker” (“Der Hausmeister”) written in 1959 and “The Homecoming” (“Die Heimkehr”) written in 1965.

One of the critic-points in Pinter's works are the communication-problems, for example in "The Dumb Waiter" and "The Caretaker"

[Bearbeiten] Theater of the Absurd

The notion was embossed by Martin Esslin for a vanguard form of drama which mirrors a hopeless absurdity of the human existence. Differently than the thematically akin existentialist theater Jean-Paul Sartres’ or Albert Camus’, the theater of the absurd takes the media of grotesque without taking across its tragic impulse. The theater of the absurd stays a comedy. A further important factor is his parable-like abstracting character, which lets time and place of the plot indefinable. Sometimes clownesk, the civil moral concept become queried. The drama is robbed of its dialog: The persons talk at cross-purposes in senseless monologues – as Eugène Ionesco and Wolfgang Hildesheimer – or in extreme case – as Samuel Beckett and Peter Handke – talk in pure pantomime. Also the action thread is often disbanded up to the indiscernibility, the figures sometimes lurch like marionettes through the events, often aware about their function as theatre figures. Motivated by the theater of barbarity, the idyll often turns into something ghoulish and rowdyish. A meaningful end of the drama is impossible: “The end is the beginning, and we continue nevertheless”, it is written in “Fin de partie” (endgame).

Theatre of the Absurd and Auschwitz

The name “Theatre of the Absurd“ was founded by Martin Esslin. He is also called the father of the Theatre of the Absurd. Esslin worked for theatre and escaped from the Nazis to London. After WW 2 the peoples life changed in all spheres, also in the theatre. Lots of theatre critics say, that one reason for the developing of the t.o.a was the traumatic experiences of WW 2. To understand why this aspect, especially Auschwitz, plays a role like this, you have to understand the philosophic meaning of Auschwitz and the other cruel things in WW 2. The cruel in WW 2 in the philosophy stands for the abysses in a human soul. For the most people it was incredible, what in Auschwitz happened. Also the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an act of incredible cruelness. And all this crimes against humanity shows, how the philosophic means, the senselessness of human existence. And the t.o.a tries to bring this to transport this to the spectator. It’s a kind of trauma therapy with the past. The early theatre writers worked with this stuff. This is why t.o.a is sometimes so strange and confuse. But today there is not much from this in the pieces. It’s to long ago.

[Bearbeiten] Harold Pinter: “Night School” (Abendschule)

After nine months in a prison the small forger Walter Street looks forward to the cosy room in the house of his aunts. But the two whimsical women tell him that the room is rented for now. The new occupant is a young teacher who learns eagerly in the night school. Then Walter makes a strange discovery…

[Bearbeiten] Harold Pinter: “Old Times” (Alte Zeiten)

Anna visits Kate, the friend of her youth, and gets to know her husband Deeley. They talk about some stories and old anecdotes in their life. After a while they make their past more and more to weapons to overtrump each other. Relationships break, new partnerships come into existence for a while in which always somebody is counted out.

[Bearbeiten] Political activities

Pinter is quite interested in politics and doesn't hesitate to let the public know. He commented on the NATO bombing of Serbia, the war against iraq and many others. In his speech at the 10th Prize of Europe in Theater he said: "The task of Europe is to resist the power of the United States. A political and cultural force so virulent that it may destroy Europe".

Pinter about democracy and the American Government:

"There's no escape. The big pricks are out. 
They'll fuck everything in sight. Watch your back."

Pinter about Bush's ally Tony Blair:

"This voice is the voice of Tony Blair Mr Bush knows what he's doing!" 
But the fact is that Mr Bush and
his gang do know what they're doing and Blair, 
unless he really is the deluded idiot he often appears to be,  
also knows what they're doing. They are determined, quite simply, 
to control the world and the world's resources. 
And they don't give a damn how many people they murder on the way. 
And Blair goes along with it."

[Bearbeiten] Pinter as a political author

Pinter always saw his artistic work in a political way. He convicted the coup d'ètat against the Chilean politician Salvador Allende in 1973 just like the Vietnam war. His most recently criticisms concern the war against Iraq.

Critics assumes Pinter a "childish worldview" concerning his polical activities.

[Bearbeiten] Pinter accuses Bush and Blair state terrorism

President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair should be posed in front of the international criminal division in Den Haag. This is what Pinter said in a video message. The invasion of Irak was an opus of criminals and a act of state terrorism. Bush and Blair are responsible for tenthousands of deads. One of his questions was: "How many people do you have to kill to become an mass murderer or a war criminal"? He accused the USA of assisting every rightist dictatorship since the World War II. But all this happened with the alibi to help humanity. But the USA brought only torture, adversity, abasement and death. In 2003 Pinter wrote the poem-collection "War" including one speech.

[Bearbeiten] Nobel Prize for Literature

[Bearbeiten] “I feel overwhelmed”

The literature Nobel Prize 2005 went to the Briton Harold Pinter. This advertised the Swedish nobel prize committee in Stockholm. Pinter “is said to be the most brilliant representative of the English drama in the second half of the 20th century”. The awarding of the with 1.1 Million Dollar endowed prize was totally surprising. "I just feel overwhelmed" said Pinter to the assembled journalists in his house. He was aphasic as he heard from the decision. The reactions were controversial. Pinter received advice from the literature detractor Marcel Reich-Ranicki but was criticized by his associate Denis Scheck and Sigrid Löffler. Pinter, who started his career as an stage actor, began to write lyrics, plays and scenarios in the 1950s. The Nobel price committee dignified in particular the chaste clearness in Pinter’s dramatic producing. He reduced the theater to its important elements: A closed room, unpredictable things and people who depend on the mercy of others. The price handed over traditionally took place at Alfred Nobel’s day of death on September 10th in Stockholm.

[Bearbeiten] Pinter's Nobel Speech

Harold Pinter took his Nobel Speech despite his cancer illnes. After that he had to go back to the medical attendence. Pinter said:" As everybody knows is the reason for the Iraq invasion the credence, that Sadam Hussein is in possesion of mass destruction weapons. The united states and some other states insured, that this is true. But it was not the truth. Some people told us that the Iraq has connections to the al-Qaida for the 11 september. They were wrong. They told us the Iraq menaced the security of the world. It was also wrong. The truth looks different. The truth is, that the united states understand their role in the world which they embody."

Here you can find the hole speech both as text in different languages and as videostream.

[Bearbeiten] Different reactions on Pinter's Nobel speech

The "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" reported that his speech could be embarrasing and arrogant, because Pinter presented hisself as an claimant and judge. Pinter knew about the plumbness and onesideness of his speech. Figures which were used for showing the US-crimes are hardly revisable. The "Frankfurter allgemeine Zeitung" convicts Pinters declaration. The doubiously methods of the USA were never discussed in the public. Pinter was also not interested about other reasons for Saddam Husseins overthrow, except mass destruction weapons. The swedish newspapers affirmed Pinters speech.They appreciate the confession of "citizen Harold Pinter". But the more conservative swedish newspapers, expressed themselve fewer supportive. Great Britain supported Pinters speech in all points."With controlled angriness and deadlier irony" remembert Pinter to his position as an great dramatist. "The New York Times" allegorised, that the Nobel price award was often awarded to left-authors.

[Bearbeiten] Miscellaneous

[Bearbeiten] Pinter in the news

Pinter made the headlines in 1977 when he got divorced from his wife, who he had married in 1956. He left her for Lady Antonia Fraser, the oldest daughter of Lord Longford. The couple married in 1980 after the divorce from his old wife had been passed through.

Pinter made the headlines when had a public argument with the theater director Peter Hall Furore, who called Pinter, after his diaries had been published in 1983, a notorious drinker. The two men could arrange their quarrel and got back to their old friendship.

Pinter also made the headlines, because he designated president George W. Bush in the context with the iraq war as a mass murderer and called Tony Blair a "deluded idiot". Pinter also uses every opportunity to blame Bush.

[Bearbeiten] Quotations

• "Future is the excuse all that one, which does not want to do anything in the present." - DOES NOT MAKE SENSE !!!!
• "One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant strategem to cover nakedness."
• "Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living."
• "Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?"
• "The United States is the greatest show on the road"
• "The crimes of the U.S. throughout the world have been systematic, constant, clinical, remorseless, and fully documented but nobody talks about them."
• "The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember."
• "I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth - certainly greater than sex, although sex isn't too bad either."
• "I mean, don't forget the earth's about five thousand million years old, at least. Who can afford to live in the past?"
• "It was difficult being a conscientious objector in the 1940's, but I felt I had to stick to my guns!"
• "I will continue to write what I write until the day I die."

[Bearbeiten] Quaint

Harold Pinter was reported dead on October 13th 2005. Its was assumed that he died because of his suffering from throatcancer for several years, and an accident where he injured his head badly. It was the same day on which it was announced that he would receive the Nobel Prize of Literature. Also Pinter loved cricket very much. He is the boss of Gaieties Cricket Club.

[Bearbeiten] Weblinks

• Official Homepage of Harold Pinter

• Harold_Pinter in der deutschen Wikipedia

• Harold Pinter in the english Wikipedia
• Nobel Prize (Official Homepage)
• Nobelpreis für Pinter (MDR)
• Nobelpreis für Pinter (Tagesschau)
• Linksammlung zu Harold Pinter
• Kalenderblatt: Pinter wird geboren
• Blog mit vielen Pinter-Zitaten

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