Family Voices: A Play for Radio

by Harold Pinter

Written as a series of monologues featuring an exchange of letters between a mother and her absent son. The mother's desperate attempts to bring her son back to her from his lodgings in a sleazy London boarding house become more ill-attuned, serving only to accentuate the irreparable rift between them.

Genres: Plays

26 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

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

[kiho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally after some weak ones a Pinter I enjoyed once more. Misses his usual cruelty, cynicism and deadpan humor, you could almost call it touching.

[SB · Rating 4 out of 5]

one-sentence review: a sunset blvd.-esque billy wilder noir meets david lynch's mysterious and surreal comedy -- voilà, you have your distorted version of rashomon narrative (this play is very filmable).

[Anton Segers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea, I’m afraid.
Eens te meer lanceert Pinter ons in de dreigende immorele afgrond die verscholen ligt onder de Britse schijnheiligheid. Maar het contrast is hier te zwart-wit, de gruwel te buitenissig om te boeien.
Temeer daar Pinter deze puzzel serveert met te veel ontbrekende en onlegbare stukjes.

[Nina Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mindfucked.

[Connor Udhus · Rating 5 out of 5]

What in the hell did I just read

[Hiba⁷ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was kind of good, quite hard to decipher, for not anyone can see and notice what's between the lines. The play is about this young man who left his hometown (I suppose) to go live in the city, which is something he's really pleased about, the scenes are letters, a correspondance between the young man's mother and him, but the boy's letters seem to remain unsent, and he always seems that he has received none of his mother's letters.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always with a new Pinter, I need to experience it 2 or more times before I trust my impression. The 4 stars is provisional. What will further exposure reveal?

[Gilgamesh Nabeel · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was good!

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sometimes I find the disembodiment and difficulty in communication experienced by Pinter's characters too grating and painful...