Beyond the play on words, of course, the term does fit The Birthday
Party quite well. The menacing element in the play is destiny “as
an incurable disease which one forgets about most of the time and whose lethal
reminders may take the form of a joke" (Wardle, "Comedy of
Menace" in Encore magazine). The
celebration of Stanley’s birthday hangs menacingly enough over most of the
play, to resolve into what we can only imagine is Stanley’s destiny – being
taken away by two mysterious men.
The Birthday Party is also often given as example for Theatre
of the Absurd, which refers to the fluidity and ambiguity of time, place, and identity in the text. As an audience
member of The Birthday Party, you can expect to feel confused at times about
the story line, as the facts seem to contradict themselves at times, and
characters respond to more than one name.
For example, in Act One, Stanley describes his career, saying
"I've played the piano all over the world," followed immediately by
"All over the country," and then by "I once gave a concert”. The
character Goldberg responds to ‘Nat’, but in his stories of the past he refers
to himself as ‘Simey’ and also ‘Benny’, and when talking about his partner
McCann, he calls him both ‘Dermot’ and ‘Seamus’. Of course, none of this is
actually absurd, one could theoretically come up with a plausible explanation
for the multitude of names – nicknames, and the story about a career as a
pianist could just be a lie that Stanley decides to tone down. But in the
context of a staged play, for an audience member who is trying to follow the
story, things get amusingly confusing. Which is, of course, part of Pinter’s
charm.
By
Ana-Catrina Buchser for the Dragon Theatre
No comments:
Post a Comment