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Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies

An AHRC-funded project (Universities of Leeds, Birmingham & Reading)

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Category Archives: History

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‘possibly apocryphal’: Anecdotes and Memories of Pinter

Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies avatarPosted on 10th May 2019 by Catriona Fallow2nd July 2019

Much of our time on the Harold Pinter: Histories and Legacies project is concerned with locating, exploring and documenting ‘official’ historical traces of the life and work of Harold Pinter via various archives, libraries and published works. What we have also discovered however, is that a project of this scale focused on the creative output of one person is bound to uncover, solicit or otherwise happen across its fair share … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Influence, Interview, Legacy, Stage | Tagged Mixed Doubles, National Student Drama Festival, Night, The Birthday Party, The Questors, Vivien Merchant

Power to the People: Pinter, Amateur Performance and the Questors Theatre

Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies avatarPosted on 11th February 2019 by Catriona Fallow11th February 2019

There can be little doubt that Pinter’s professional career benefitted hugely from the commercial theatre sector in the West End and Broadway, from state-subsidised organisations like the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, or public broadcasting services like the BBC. One of the primary aims of the Harold Pinter: Histories and Legacies project is to trace, chart, archive and contextualise every professional production of Harold Pinter’s plays in the … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Influence, Interview, Legacy, Production, Stage | Tagged Amateur Theatre, Archives, The Birthday Party, The Questors

Happy Birthday, Harold: Pinter at the Pinter’s Memento Mori

Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies avatarPosted on 1st November 2018 by Catriona Fallow7th December 2018

On Wednesday the 10th of October 2018, Harold Pinter would have turned 88. 10 years after his death, the Jamie Lloyd Company (the team behind the unprecedented Pinter at the Pinter season currently running at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End until February 2019) gathered together an all-star cast of performers to celebrate his legacy in a one-off gala event, Happy Birthday, Harold. Framing the event as a birthday – … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, History, Influence, Legacy, Poetry, Politics, Production, Stage | Tagged Arthur Miller, Betrayal, Death, Harold Pinter Theatre, House of Commons Speech, I Know the Place, It Is Here (for A), No Man's Land, Pinter at the Pinter, Samuel Beckett, The Coast, The French Lieutenant's Woman, To My Wife

Reflections on the ‘Pinter on Film, Television and Radio’ conference, 19-20 September 2018

Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies avatarPosted on 1st October 2018 by Amanda Wrigley2nd July 2019

The University of Reading arm of the Pinter Histories and Legacies project—peopled by Professor Jonathan Bignell, Dr Billy Smart and Dr Amanda Wrigley—were thrilled to welcome project colleagues and an international group of academic friends old and new from an exciting range of disciplines to the University of Reading’s Minghella Studies, the home of the Film, Theatre and Television Department, on 19 September 2018 for the first day of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Adaptation, Film, History, Influence, Interview, Legacy, Politics, Production, Radio, Stage, Television, Uncategorised

Harold Pinter at the RSC (Part 2): Reflections on the Archive

Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies avatarPosted on 4th July 2018 by Catriona Fallow7th July 2018

One of the consistent pleasures of research into the production histories of Pinter’s theatrical work for this project has been the opportunity to learn from and work with the archivists and librarians at different institutions that hold rich and varied material connected with Pinter’s expansive career. Of course, as with any research strategy – particularly those engaged in revisiting or reassessing traces of past performances – archival research is not … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Influence, Interview, Legacy, Production, Stage | Tagged Archives, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, The Dumb Waiter, Theatregoround

The Lover (Associated-Rediffusion for ITV, 1963): ‘tough stuff, well acted and cleverly directed’

Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies avatarPosted on 30th May 2018 by Amanda Wrigley2nd July 2019

By the time The Lover was broadcast by ITV on 28 March 1963, Pinter was, as his biographer Michael Billington puts it, ‘in contemporary jargon, “hot” ’ (The Life and Work of Harold Pinter, Faber, 2007, p. 142). So, too, was its producer Joan Kemp-Welch (1906-1999), at least within the television industry. The dramatic narrative itself, based on the erotic role-play of a suburban middle-class married couple (played by Vivien … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Legacy, Production, Television | Tagged Associated-Rediffusion, ITV, Joan Kemp-Welch, The Lover

The Fact of Pinter

Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies avatarPosted on 11th April 2018 by Basil Chiasson12th April 2018

To open his keynote speech for the Staging Pinter conference at Birmingham, playwright and lecturer Steve Waters declared that ‘Pinter is such a fact for all of us.’ The presentations and interaction that transpired over Friday and Saturday demonstrated, explored and even interrogated the fact that Pinter ‘is such a fact.’ The demographic of delegates was international: with parts of Europe, the Middle East, North America and Great Britain represented and … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Influence, Legacy, Production, Stage, Uncategorised | Tagged Alistair McDowell, Dennis Kelly, Jez Butterworth, Martin Crimp, Peter Hall, Steve Waters

A Dialogued Review: Ian Rickson’s ‘The Birthday Party’ 2018

Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies avatarPosted on 29th March 2018 by Basil Chiasson3rd April 2018

The following dialogue explores the recent production of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, which is playing at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End from 9 January to 14 April 2018. The production is directed by Ian Rickson and stars Peter Wight as Petey, Zoë Wannamaker as Meg, Toby Jones as Stanley, Pearl Mackie as Lulu, Stephen Mangan as Goldberg and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as McCann. Set design is by … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Influence, Legacy, Production, Stage | Tagged Betrayal, Harold Pinter Theatre, Ian Rickson, Pearl Mackie, Peter Wight, Quay Brothers, Samuel Beckett, Stephen Mangan, The Birthday Party, Toby Jones, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Zoë Wanamaker

Brian Blessed and Pinter’s The Room: a real knock-out

Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies avatarPosted on 22nd December 2017 by Catriona Fallow6th March 2018

‘Shouting? Swearing? Threats? Menacing looks? I know what you’re thinking: it sounds just like a Harold Pinter play!’ Brian Blessed, Absolute Pandemonium: My Louder than Life Story (London: Pan Books, 2015), p. 77. As the Harold Pinter: Histories and Legacies team prepare for the holiday season, what better time to reflect on some of the more surprising finds and amusing anecdotes we’ve come across? In his 2015 autobiography, Absolute Pandemonium, … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Production, Stage, Uncategorised | Tagged Brian Blessed, Bristol Old Vic, Gulbenkian Studio, Royal Shakespeare Company, The Room, University of Bristol

Pinter Goes West: Betrayal at Salisbury Playhouse & The Caretaker at Bristol Old Vic

Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies avatarPosted on 19th October 2017 by Graham Saunders3rd December 2017

In the run-up to the tenth anniversary since Harold Pinter’s death, theatre audiences in the West of England have had the opportunity to see both early and late middle period work with The Caretaker at Bristol Old Vic and Betrayal at Salisbury Playhouse. The two young directors (Christopher Haydon and Jo Newman), have succeeded in refreshing these two repertoire favourites. Past Pinter productions haunted me on the train journey to … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Influence, Legacy, Politics, Production, Stage | Tagged Betrayal, Bristol Old Vic, Closer, Joan Bakewell, Patrick Marber, Peter Hall, Salibsury Playhouse, The Caretaker

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