As I said in my preview, nowadays it is a rare treat to see a play by Harold Pinter. The last one at the Everyman was Betrayal five or six years ago. It is sad and disappointing he is no longer in favour. I, for one, regard him as one of the leading British playwrights of the 20th century. What makes him unique and original, apart from his seemingly odd situations and unresolved story lines, is his use of language. He uses, on stage, English as it is spoken. He leaves in all the pauses, the repetition, the banality and the trivia and in doing so makes it all sound stylised and unusual. What is stylised and unusual is the refined, unnatural way characters speak in Ayckbourn, Hare et al. By depicting on stage the way people really speak, he makes us look at our language, our behaviour and our lives in a new and enlightened way.
The Birthday Party was written in 1957 and was very much part of the zeitgeist, the renaissance of British theatre, which was well under way thanks to John Osborne, Arnold Wesker and all the other so-called kitchen-sink writers of the time. It was Pinter’s first full length play but all the pieces that would identify his later works were already in place.
As with all Pinter’s plays, we are never quite sure what is going on, who is doing what to whom, and why. The Birthday Party takes place in a drab and dreary sea-side boarding house (or is it?), run by deck-chair-man Petey and his mousey, compliant wife Meg whose sole purpose in life seems to be providing a nice breakfast consisting of cornflakes and fried bread. Living in one of their rooms is Stanley, the lodger (or is he?) an odd young (possibly too young in this production) man who does not think much of the breakfast or being got out of bed to eat it.
Enter two strangers, Goldberg and his sidekick/minder/muscle McCann who have happened upon the house, seemingly not by chance, as they seem to have some business/connection/whatever with strange Stanley whose birthday it is. Goldberg is Jewish and wears a suit but that, apart from some personal details, is all we know. Is he a gangster and what does he want? There are lots of questions but hardly any answers.
The play is presented on a raised, self-contained platform with no scenery, just furniture and props. I suspect this was a pragmatic decision by the producers so as to facilitate consistency in the myriad venues in which the tour will appear over the next four months – last night was the first night of that tour. Pragmatism apart, the platform worked very well, serving to focus the audience’s attention and isolate the action and the lives of the protagonists.
Jonathan Ashley was excellent as the fairly suave, charming, often persuasive but always menacing Goldberg. Declan Rodgers was convincing as his henchman/associate McCann whose muscles were much in evidence, should they be needed.
The most successful scene was the birthday party itself and it was here that Cheryl Kennedy as the dowdy Meg excelled in her pathetic hand-me-down party frock. Gareth Bennett-Ryan was good as the enigmatic Stanley but I thought he should have been a bit older and perhaps a bit more strange. I liked Imogen Wilde as Lulu, the dolly-bird (is one allowed to say that nowadays?) who pops in and gets seduced by Goldberg. Ged McKenna was likeable and sympathetic as Petey, even though the part is a bit meagre without much meat for an actor to get his teeth into.
All in all a very worthwhile production which will mature and improve as it beds in. If you like Pinter you should grab this chance while you can, the next one may not be along for a while. ★★★★☆ Michael Hasted 18th February 2016
