Thinking Activity on "The Birthday Party"
The Birthday Party (1957) is the second full-length play by Harold Pinter, first published in London by Encore Publishing in 1959. It is one of his best-known and most frequently performed plays. In the setting of a rundown seaside boarding house, a little birthday party is turned into a nightmare when two sinister strangers arrive unexpectedly. The play has been classified as a comedy of menace, characterized by Pinteresque elements such as ambiguous identity, confusions of time and place, and dark political symbolism.
It is very difficult to know director’s intention behind omitting Lulu’s scene because it does not make any difference if the scenes are omitted. Lulu is a girl who can be impressed very easily and we can see in the movie that she is actively participating with Goldberg. Goldberg is not doing it forcefully or Lulu is not in position where she has to be submissive, she is doing it willingly. The center of the play is Stanley and symbolically Lulu is his inspiration. When Lulu goes near to Goldberg, it is enough to see that how Stanley is left alone now and after this may be there is no need to show the scene of Lulu blaming Goldberg. May be because of this reason director omitted the scene of Lulu.
Is movie successful in giving us the effect of menace? Where you able to feel it while reading the text?
What do you read in 'newspaper' in the movie? Petey is reading newspaper to Meg, it torn into pieces by McCain, pieces are hidden by Petey in last scene.
Camera is positioned over the head of McCain when he is playing Blind Man's Buff and is positioned at the top with a view of room like a cage (trap) when Stanley is playing it. What interpretations can you give to these positioning of camera?
"Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of one another and pretense crumbles." (Pinter, Art, Truth & Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture). Does this happen in the movie?
How does viewing movie help in better understanding of the play ‘The Birthday Party’ with its typical characteristics (like painteresque, pause, silence, menace, lurking danger)?
o “It's impossible to imagine a better film of Pinter's play than this sensitive, disturbing version directed by William Friedkin. (Ebert)
Comedy of menace is the body of plays written by David Campton, Nigel Dennis, N. F. Simpson, and Harold Pinter. The term was coined by drama critic Irving Wardle, who borrowed it from the subtitle of Campton's play The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace, in reviewing Pinter's and Campton's plays in Encore in 1958. (Campton's subtitle Comedy of Menace is a jocular play-on-words derived from comedy of manners—menace being manners pronounced with somewhat of a Judeo-English accent.
while watching the movie I feel the effect of Manace. the pause and silence of printer is hard to understand while we reading.
Do you feel the effect of lurking danger while viewing the movie? Where you able to feel the same while reading the text.
Yes, I do feel lurking danger while watching movie. In movie I feel it when Stanley hide in kitchen and Then again when interrogation scene came and at last when they take Stanley away.
- Obstacle in communication.
- Petey is reading in the beginning .we can read that behind newspaper he is hiding his impotency.
- Later on this newspaper was torn into pieces by Maccan,which represent that Maccan himself is broken inside like these torn pieces of newspaper
The director of the movie had taken very effective work from camera. During the blind man’s buff scene also it works effectively. MacCann was there in that house because he wants to grab Stanley. When it come to blindfold MacCann the camera was over the head of MacCann and his expression was also savage. It is like he is trying to get his prey. But when it comes to Stanley the camera is on top of the room and room is looking like cage and Stanley is trying to escape. So it is symbolically said that now Stanley is in trap and he can not escape because Goldberg and MacCann will not allow him to do so.
Yes, this do happen in movie. Most of the scenes are in drawing room.
The space is so narrow and the dialogues are also impulsive. We cannot imagine
what is going on in the mind of characters. Every character is on the mercy of
each other,Every characters are living on other. At some point of time every
one’s false faces falls down. They became what they really are. So yes these
lines do happen in movie.
Yes, it is better to watch movie of this play then the reading and it also gives deeper understanding of Pinter’s characteristics and characters. there is two Silence in Pinter’s play which gave better understanding rather than reading. The pause we can feel while watching but while reading it is just like a word.
I With which of the following observations you agree:
o “It probably wasn't possible to make a satisfactory film of "The Birthday Party."o “It's impossible to imagine a better film of Pinter's play than this sensitive, disturbing version directed by William Friedkin. (Ebert)
In this movie we feel all the effect which Pinter wants to create on audience mind. Director has take good shots from camera and all actors have also did very good job. So I can’t imagine a better film than this one.so, here i will go with second point.
If you were director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of movie?
· Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters?
· Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters?
If I have to choose the actors for this movie I will choose…
Stanley – Ranveer Singh
Goldberg – Pankaj Tripathi
MacCann – Manoj bajpayee
Petey – Anupam Kher
Meg – Kiran Kher
Lulu – Kaira advani
Goldberg – Pankaj Tripathi
MacCann – Manoj bajpayee
Petey – Anupam Kher
Meg – Kiran Kher
Lulu – Kaira advani
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