The Tea Party and Other Plays

by Harold Pinter

Originally presented on B.B.C. Television on March 25th 1965 starring Leo McKern & Vivien Merchant.

Genres: Plays

Paperback

Published January 1, 1991

About the author

Harold Pinter was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964) and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993) and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television and film productions of his own and others' works.

Reviews

[Julio César · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm finding Pinter's style more and more captivating every day. Or should I say, each play of his I manage to find takes me to places I had never thought could get me to. His characters all seem so absorbed in their thoughts; communication is just another way of immersing themselves into their private realms. Nothing goes to where it's supposed to -and that's great.

[MH · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three teleplays written in the early 1960s for the BBC, each dealing with familiar Pinteresque ideas of invasion and loss of masculine status, each without clear answers for the audience. I was surprised to see that they occasionally get staged as they're written very much for television - "Tea Party" depends on POV shots to tell the story, and "The Basement" needs its very manic (and very 60s) quick-cut editing - but all three of these lesser Pinter plays are probably better seen than read.