The Birthday Party

The plays of Harold Pinter are challenging. I have a dim recollection of studying him back in college, but I haven't made a habit of reading his work, and my attendance at yesterday's performance of The Birthday Party at the McCarter theater was only my second time seeing a Pinter play (the McCarter did a lackluster performance of Betrayal a few years ago). I found a yellowed copy of the text of The Birthday Party on my bookshelf, so I may have read it years ago.

I had no memory of it as I watched the production, though. First performed in 1958, The Birthday Party begins as if it were a comedy, with two older people sitting having breakfast. The wife, Meg, runs a boarding house with only one tenant, a failed piano player named Stanley. When Stanley makes his appearance there is something shifty and nasty about him. Later, when two strangers make an appearance, Stanley is quite agitated. One of the men, Goldberg, is a smooth-talker, like a salesman, while the other, McCann, is more of a thug. When Goldberg learns from Meg that it is Stanley's birthday, he insists on having a party. The party, however, turns into something of a nightmare.

This play is challenging because there are several questions asked but no answers. Who are the two men? They seem to have come for Stanley, but why? They make vague references to him betraying an organization, but it seems to me that they represent any sort of mysterious authority. There are also confused identities. Goldberg says his name is Nat, but when talking about his past he mentions that he was called Simey or Benny. When Goldberg speaks it is often in a kind of stream-of-consciousness that recalls the work of Samuel Beckett.

The production, directed by McCarter's Artistic Director, Emily Mann, plays up the comedy in the production. Ms. Mann sat behind me during the performance, and I could hear her laughing along with the audience. At a subscription-based theater, I suppose it's important to play up the farce elements, because the play is so difficult to grasp. It's been a day since I saw it and I'm still trying to come to grips with it.