Harold Pinter’s plays are ideally suited to the intensity of live theatre; William Friedkin’s 1968 adaptation of Pinter’s boarding house domination-fest is one of the best examples of the good cinematic transfer. Described as a Comedy of Menace, The Birthday Party is not recommended if you’re looking for ideas about hosting a celebratory bash; it’s dour, sinister and uncomfortable to watch, much as the maker intended.
Friedkin was heading for the A-list of directors, with The Boys in The Band and The French Connection on their way in the next few years. He got an ideal cast; Robert Shaw is one of the great screen performers, and works wonders as Stanley, an introverted man who is hiding out in a dingy seaside bed and breakfast that rarely has visitors. Until two men, Goldberg and McCann arrive, played by Sydney Tafler and Patrick Magee. What’s going on? Is Stanley a terrorist, or a criminal, or an innocent man being terrorised by two hoods? Pinter plays his cards close to his chest; even the landlady (Dandy Nichols) and her husband can’t quite get a handle on things. But Stanley’s birthday party is a working definition of an ordeal, with asides and jibes eventually crystallising into violence during a party game, and a bitter coda demonstrating the emotional cost of the evening.
Pinter extrapolated The Birthday Party from a conversation he’d had; Stanley’s description of his career as a concert pianist is lifted from real life, although in both the play and the film, it’s almost certainly a lie. No-one is telling the truth here, and that’s part of the issue; Pinter pre-dates the Fake News era by giving the characters and the audience little to hang on to. Ambiguity runs rife; the claustrophobic setting is oppressive, and Friedkin is faithful to the letter of play, dragging things out for a painful but rewarding two hours plus.
For a director best known for his blockbusters, Friedkin knew how to film a play; fans of his later Killer Joe will find the same nailed-down quality here. Although the Blind’s Man Bluff sequence goes over the score with chroma-key that’s very 1968, this is a strong record of some blazing acting, with Shaw, Nichols and Macgee all on top form. It may not be a lot of laughs, but it’s a key play in 20th century theatre, and The Birthday Party is well worth returning to in 2020.
Sign me up to see it. I like Pinter!
I’m a big fan, and this is typical of the style of his best work…
Well, have to say being a fan of Shaw, and having read the premise in your post as well as your review, I’m sold😊 Like yesterday though this will probably be a hard one to find for me 😊
Yup, it’s not easy to find, and that link is for DVD rather than streaming; I’d watch Shaw in anything, but this is a good play to boot…
One of the greatest plays of all time suitably adapted to the movies. You can’t quite capture a theatrical atmosphere that was pure sinister but this is a mighty good attempt. Shaw always at his best when baleful.
Baleful! That’s the bon mot here. I feel Shaw has a ‘how the mighty have fallen’ feel here, we have to believe he was a big enough shot to merit this kind of attention…
I’d go into hiding too if I had a sweater like that in my warddrobe!
Maybe sweater shame is what this play is really about!
If that is what it takes to get corkers like that off the street, then I’m fully for sweater shaming!
This is a real insight into the enigmatic work of Harold Pinter. I’ll alert the media.
I just call’em like I see’em. When it comes to ugly sweaters, I’m a no holds barred, knock down drag out, kind of guy.
What do you wear? Chainmail? A vest of human skulls?
Chainmail chafes my delicate skin. A good armani 3 piece suit made from the skin of my enemies usually works well for me. That way, after I’m done drinking their blood, I don’t let the rest of them go to waste.
Waste not, want not, that’s my motto.
I like that practicality, a nice touch while using the skulls of your enemies as goblets…
I’m a big believer in recycling 😀
Now, are YOU a recycler? I haven’t seen a lot of recycled reviews on this site and I’m beginning to wonder if you’re going to use up all the “original” in the whole universe?
I don’t have room to recycle reviews, too many new reviews to publish first…
Well, don’t come crying to me when all the “original” gets used up and there’s none left. You’ll have no one but yourself to blame…
Life’s too short to repeat oneself…
I don’t know about you, but I plan to live forever. So recycling is a HUGE part of my blogging plans.
I’m planning to recycling your skull as a fruit bowl.
How are you going to do that when I plan on living forever? I’m sensing a conflict in our agendas here…
I’ll keep your brain in a jar and let you watch tv on holidays.
That seems more like a threat than a promise to me. Besides, without my eyeballs, how’s my brain going to watch anything?
Ha, maybe if my brain is eternal then I can turn into some sort of mind leach and live vicariously through my victims. I can see possibilities. I have to ask, are you willing to take responsibility though when I get it wrong the first few times and leave a trail of thrashing victims in my wake?
I guess you can’t make an omelette without leaving a few thrashing victims in your wake. I’ll attack an old webcam to your brain so that you don’t miss a thing. Not a threat, a promise!
Hmm, a gentle nope for this, I like Shaw a lot, but this sounds like hard work.
I’ll accept a gentle nope for a tough, demanding film like this…
good, I’m not keen on being toughened or demanded.
I agree that the part where the lights go out doesn’t work today. It was the one really jarring part. And as big a fan as I am of Robert Shaw, I can’t help feeling he’s miscast here as Stanley. Shaw just doesn’t project a lot of vulnerability.
I can see the issue with Shaw, but don’t feel Stanley has to be weak. Just a man in hiding. Shaw is such an unconventional presence, it works for me that it’s hard to work out what kind of person he is. But that chromakey…