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The Birthday Party
- Tour.
Written in 1957 and first performed in 1958.
Playwright - Harold Pinter.
Director - Guy Hollands.
Designer - Neil Warmington.
Lighting Designer - Natasha Chivers.
Music - John Irvine.
Assistant Director - Stewart Porter.
Company - TAG Theatre Company
.
Cast - here .
2003 Tour Dates and Times - here .
Seen to review at Traverse Theatre 16 October.
Reviewer - Thelma Good.
Gradually unravelling but recognisable world.
The Birthday Party - TAG Production.
Ronnie Simon as Stanley.
© Kevin Low 2003
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When Pinter's first full length play first opened in London it only
lasted a week, and the reviews were almost all scathing. Only Harold Hobson
recognized that this was a first class play from a talented newcomer.
Pinter has more than fulfilled Hobson's remarks and the play has received
thousands of productions from actors and directors keen to attempt its
dark menace.
Ronnie Simon is Stanley, a sometime concert pianist who's washed
up in Meg and Petey's B and B in a small seaside town. Meg treats him
and her husband Petey the same way, as if she was their mother, Stanley
and she have come to some kind of understanding.
Simon is excellent as Stanley, just managing to shuffle through
the day till his temper flares up to protect his misery when his inner
gremlins are in danger of surfacing. Katherine Stark's Meg is a
fine study of an ageing woman who still retreats to a childlike manner
to keep everything under control while Alec Heggie's Petey is the
simple man who lacks fibre, yet helps you feel calmed in his presence.
The play's enduring dynamic is its hinting, never clarifying dialogue.
Are the two men, Goldberg and McCann, who come to stay on Stanley's birthday,
known to him, why does Lulu pop in so readily, and what is Stanley hiding
from? The speculations the play gives rise to are made possible by good
productions which move it from reality into a gradually unravelling but
recognisable world.
In TAG's overall effective one however, the Scottification of the dialogue
adds a distracting note and, in the case of Stewart Porter's otherwise
well drawn Goldberg, creates a strange and unnecessary layer of a Scottish
Jew given to parodying his Jewishness in a Cockney accent.
© Thelma Good 16 October 2003. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast: Petey - Alec Stark, Meg - Katherine Stark,
Stanley - Ronnie Simon, Lulu - Jo Freer, Goldberg - Stewart Porter and
McCann - Bryan Larkin.
2003 Tour Details of TAG Theatre's production
of The Birthday Party .
Tour begins
19 - 27 Sept (except
21-22 Sept) Glasgow Tron Theatre, 0141 552 4267.
29 Sept at 7.30pm Oban Corran Halls 01631 567333.
1 Oct at 8 pm Thurso Mill Theatre01847 896901.
3 Oct at 8pm Ardross Hall 01349 880591 .
4 Oct at 8pm Findhorn Universal Hall Arts Centre 01309 690110
6 - 7 Oct at 7.30pm Aberdeen Lemon Tree 01224 642230
8-9 Oct at 8pm St Andrews Byre Theatre, 01334 475000
10 Oct at 7pm Edinburgh NEAC 0131 315 2151
11 Oct at 7.30pm Musselburgh Brunton Theatre 0131 665 2240
15 -18 Oct Edinburgh Traverse Theatre 0131 228 1404
15/16/17 Oct 7.30pm & 18 Oct 2.30pm/7.30pm
22 Oct at 7.30pm Ayr Gaiety Theatre 01292 611222
23 Oct at 7.30pm Pitlochry Festival Theatre 01796 484626
24-25 Oct at 7.30pm Paisley Arts Centre 0141 887 1010
27-28 Oct at 7.30pm Glenrothes Rothes Halls 01592 611101
29 Oct at 7.30pm Livingston Howden Park Centre 01506 433 634
31 Oct at 8 pm Stirling macRobert Arts Centre 01786 466666.
Tour Ends.
Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is
thelma@edinburghguide.com
Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted
for any errors or omissions.
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