The early influence of Harold Pinter

The Servant, Joseph Losey (director), Harold Pinter (writer), Dirk Bogarde and James Fox

By Stephen Pate

The world notes with sadness the passing of the great British playwright Harold Pinter. Personally, Pinter was an early influence that I intend to renew. My exposure to him was only through movies. Fortunately Halifax has a strong British culture. One could see almost all of the great British and foreign films with only some diligence to the Sunday art cinema at the Hyland Theatre.

My first Pinter film was “The Servant” with Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles and James Fox, a darkly immoral film to my mind at the time. Pinter was the writer from a book by Robin Maugham. I was so intrigued by the plot, character development and cinematographer I saw it numerous times. Losey framed emotionally charged scenes, like the one above, as reflections which was visually arresting.

Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter dies at 78

Harold Pinter, the young playwright

By PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press

Thu Dec 25, 9:44 am

LONDON – Harold Pinter, praised as the most influential British playwright of his generation and a longtime voice of political protest, has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 78.

Pinter, whose distinctive contribution to the stage was recognized with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, died on Wednesday, according to his second wife, Lady Antonia Fraser.

“Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles,” the Nobel Academy said when it announced Pinter’s award. “With a minimum of plot, drama emerges from the power struggle and hide-and-seek of interlocution.”