Future Productions
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY by HAROLD PINTER. Directed by Lizzy Ward. Produced by Kate Palmer and Dominic O'ConnorStanley Webber is the only lodger in Meg and Peteys' seaside boarding house. One morning while Meg and Stanley are bantering over breakfast, she mentions that 2 visitors are coming to stay for the night. Stanley immediately becomes apprehensive, sensing imminent danger. His fears are confirmed when Goldberg and his partner McCann arrive.Meg announces that it is Stanley's birthday, and even though Stanley insists it is not, Goldberg demands a celebration. After a few glasses of whisky and a game of Blindman's Buff Stanley's birthday party turns into a nightmare. Goldberg and McCann drag Stanley off to an upstairs room and by morning have rendered him mute.
Lizzy Ward says, Pinter has said of the Birthday Party that menace does not come from extraordinary sinister people, but from you and me; it is all a matter of circumstances. The Birthday Party places ordinary people in an increasingly tense situation which is never truly resolved. The audience are left with unanswered questions; we are left to fill in the blanks for ourselves. Not only are the characters unsettled, but so are the audience. Themes of violence, power and truth combine to create a piece of theatre on a knife edge.
CAST
Petey John Fletcher
Meg Alison Brady
Stanley Marc besssant
Lulu Georgie Parkin
Goldberg John Palmer
McCann Al Brunker