THE BIRTHDAY PARTY. To 27 May
Mold/Cardiff
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
by Harold Pinter
Clwyd Theatr Cymru (Emlyn Williams Theatre) To 20 May 2006
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 2.45pm
Audio-described 11 May
Captioned 13 May 2.45pm
Post-show discussion 11, 18 May then Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff
25-27 May 8pm
Runs 2hr 25min One interval
TICKETS: 0845 330 3565
www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk (Mold)
029 2030 4400
www.chapter.org (Cardiff)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 May
A Birthday treat.
Even rebels show the influence of their environment. The Birthday Party, widely condemned at its 1958 premiere, now shows the marks of more traditional plays. There’s a coming together of people disturbing daily routine. In the middle act, things move to a night-time climax. A final act, in the following morning’s light, provides a resolution. It virtually follows the 3 dramatic Unities derived from Aristotle. Yet Pinter replaces information with suggestion. And the ‘resolution’ leaves disturbing questions.
The heart of Philip Breen’s excellent production is its fine performances. These soon disperse fears he will overlay the play with production effects (Meg’s dilapidated seaside boarding-house is topped by roofs of terraced houses more like an industrial town, telegraph wires run loomingly overhead, and the cries of seagulls mount, before each act, to a squealing climax suggestive of Hitchcock’s The Birds).
Breen’s cast delineate the play’s world vividly. No victim is less sympathetic than Tristan Gravelle’s Stanley, the pianist hiding in this house (Breen’s only addition to the action is Stanley’s brief visit out of the door. He’s soon scared back by traffic sounds.) He’s a scruffy bully and it’s hard to feel too sorry when his tormentors take him away, scrubbed and silent.
Why they are after him isn’t so much the point. Philip York’s confident Goldberg, firm-voiced and immaculate in self-presentation, has the confidence of a man in tune with power, Emily Pithon’s Lulu showing in her morning-after distress how power defines his sexual aggression. Steffan Rhodri’s outstanding McCann is understatedly calm and pleasant nearly all the time he’s pressurising Stanley. Such men don’t need to know why they’re doing their job. They’re carrying out the system, as much as anyone in Orwell.
The point about Elizabeth Counsell’s haggard, ever-occupied Meg is that she worries about every detail in the house, but would scarcely notice a holocaust outside. She isn’t simple-minded, just narrow in outlook. Which leaves John Atterbury’s Petey as the voice of powerless conscience, standing perplexed, alone, midstage (how little he’s around during the action). A Birthday Party so clear, intense and modern doesn’t come along every year.
Petey: John Atterbury
Meg: Elizabeth Counsell
Stanley: Trystan Gravelle
Lulu: Emily Pithon
Goldberg: Philip York
McCann: Steffan Rhodri
Director: Philip Breen
Designer: Martyn Bainbridge
Lighting: Davy Cunningham
Soud: Matthew Williams
Dialect coach: Majella Hurley
Fight director: Renny Krupinski
2006-05-09 14:15:46