Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter, born in 1930, English playwright, known for his so-called comedies of menace, which humorously and cynically depict people attempting to communicate as they react to an invasion or threat of an invasion of their lives. He is also noted for his unique use of dialogue, which exposes his characters’ alienation from each other and explores the layers of meaning produced by pauses and silence. In 2005 Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

Harold Pinter was born in London. Initially interested in acting, he appeared in school plays as a youth. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London in 1948 and for the next ten years acted with various repertory companies. Pinter’s first three plays debuted in 1957: The Room, The Dumbwaiter, and The Birthday Party. The Caretaker (1959), his play about two neurotic brothers whose fragile relationship is upset by a vagrant who forces himself into their lives, established Pinter’s reputation as an innovative playwright. This success brought renewed attention to The Birthday Party, which subsequently became one of his most popular plays.

Pinter’s many other plays include The Lover (1962), The Homecoming (1964), The Basement (1966), Landscape (1967), Old Times (1970), No Man’s Land (1974), Betrayal (1978), One for the Road (1984), The New World Order (1988), Moonlight (1993), and Ashes to Ashes (1996). His play Remembrance of Things Past (2000) was adapted from the multivolume novel by French writer Marcel Proust.

Pinter has also written many short plays for television and radio and numerous screenplays, including The Pumpkin Eater (1964), Accident (1967), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), Betrayal (1983), The Handmaid’s Tale (1990), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He has directed many plays, including those by other writers such as Robert Shaw (The Man in the Glass Booth, 1967) and Simon Gray (Butley, 1971). Pinter also directed the movie version of Butley in 1974.

Pinter’s Poems and Prose: 1949-1977 was published in 1978. In 1995 he won Britain’s Olivier Award in recognition of his contributions to theater. The citation announcing his Nobel Prize in 2005 declared that “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.” It also noted that his unique style has resulted in the creation of “an adjective used to describe a particular atmosphere and environment in drama: ‘Pinteresque.’”

As a child in the early 1940s Pinter was forced to evacuate from London during the World War II bombings there. He said later that the experience permanently changed his life, and as an adult he became an outspoken advocate for peace. In 2003, disturbed by the United States and British invasion of Iraq that spring, Pinter published a book of antiwar poems. He has written frequently about peace issues for newspapers and magazines.

Pinter has appeared as an actor, generally in minor roles, in movies for which he wrote the script. He continued acting into his 70s, giving a poignant performance in the one-man play Krapp’s Last Tape, by Samuel Beckett, in 2006. Pinter declined a knighthood but accepted the Companion of Honour, a British honor that does not carry a title, in 2002. He is married to the writer Antonia Fraser.

See also Drama and Dramatic Arts.