Harold Pinter by Basil Chiasson

Author:Basil Chiasson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

7

Beyond the Mainstage: Harold Pinter at the Royal Shakespeare Company

Catriona Fallow

In a letter to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) chairman, Sir Fordham Flower, dated 17 June 1966, Harold Pinter expressed both his gratitude and regret that he was unable to accept a position to serve on the company’s board of governors (Pinter 1966). In restating his fondness for the RSC and admiration for the company’s founding artistic director, Peter Hall, Pinter was careful to explain that to take up such a position, and to honour the role by giving it the time and commitment it would require, would be to risk both the time and scope to do what the world had come to know him for best: writing (ibid.). This articulation of what Pinter considered to be his chief occupation, tempered by an implicit grasp of the rigours of theatrical administration, speaks to the competing imperatives that drove Pinter, creatively and professionally, during his multifaceted, polymathic career as not only a writer for stage, screen and radio but also a director, actor and advocate. That Pinter was even offered the role of governor at this stage of his career is testament to his growing significance in Britain’s theatrical landscape during the 1960s and, specifically, his work with the RSC during the company’s first decade.

This letter, and the offer that precipitated it, came at a time when the RSC was still consolidating its identity, practices and structure as a company, and while Pinter’s career and status were accelerating rapidly. By 1966, the RSC had already staged three major Pinter works in its London venue, the Aldwych: The Collection (1961) in 1962, co-directed by Pinter and Hall, The Birthday Party (1958) in 1964, directed by Pinter, and Hall’s world premiere of The Homecoming in 1965 which would become a landmark production, going on to garner numerous accolades in the UK, on Broadway and, later, as a film in 1973. The company then went on to premiere three other Pinter plays on stage: Landscape and Silence in 1969 and Old Times in 1971.1 While Old Times was in production at the Aldwych, Pinter directed his third RSC production, Exiles (1919) by James Joyce. Over nine years, the RSC was responsible for what are still considered to be some of the most significant examples of Pinter’s work for the stage as both a writer and a director.

What is less documented and discussed are the small, fleeting instances of Pinter’s work for the RSC that took place not on the company’s main London stage but as part of their smaller, short-lived initiatives that sought to engage new audiences, particularly those beyond London and Stratford-upon-Avon. These lesser-known productions of Pinter’s work at the RSC offer a new perspective on Pinter’s collaboration with one of Britain’s leading theatrical institutions and an opportunity to reflect on the versatility of Pinter’s writing in contrasting contexts during this crucial decade for British theatre. They also serve to emphasize the plurality and significance of the different working practices employed by

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.