The Birthday Party

This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows

Play Opened 25 April 2005, Closed 25 June 2005

Duchess Theatre Catherine Street, London

"A probing, intelligent and very well-acted version of a brilliant play" The Guardian

Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party centres around Stanley who lodges in a seaside boarding house run by Meg and Petey Boles. One day his peaceful, if apathetic existence, is disturbed by the arrival of two mysterious strangers. It becomes clear that Goldberg and McCann are after him. They organise a birthday party for the terrified Stanley who insists it is not his birthday. After an evening of terror, the next day they take Stanley away, promising a future for him where they will provide 'proper care and treatment'.

"A classic... the whole cast is superb" The Financial Times

The Birthday Party originally opened at The Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, on 19 May 1958 to terrible reviews and closed the same week. Having missed the opening night, The Sunday Times's Harold Hobson went to the Thursday matinee. In his review he hailed Pinter as "the most original, disturbing, and arresting talent in theatrical London," but the review was printed in the newspaper after The Birthday Party had already closed.

"A starry new revival comes as a timely reminder of just what makes Pinter great" The Daily Express

A television version of The Birthday Party was broadcast in March 1960 and was watched by some 11 million people - since when the play as become a classic, and established Harold Pinter as one the the most significant comtemporary playwrights. Recommended for 12 years and older.

"A superb production... Two glorious performances: Eileen Atkins - Wonderful... Henry Goodman - Electrifying" The Daily Telegraph

"Lindsay Posner's gripping revival... Eileen Atkins is marvellous as the deeply dim Meg who loves her lodger Stan with a devotion that is an uncomfortable mix of the smotheringly maternal and the erotic. One moment she's inquiring about his toilet habits ('Have you paid a visit?'), the next she's stuffing her tongue down his ear. Henry Goodman, too, is mesmerising as Goldberg. He plays him as a very Jewish wheeler-dealer, with lots of nose-tapping and an over-ready vulpine smile, which does nothing to obscure the threatening intentions lurking behind it." The Mail on Sunday

"Everything is dirty round the edges in Lindsay Posner's strongly cast revival of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party. The boarding house run by Eileen Atkins' libidinous old Meg is a sort of living hell. Her conversation, over and about the cornflakes, is maddeningly vacuous, while her dining room appears to be at the bottom of some metaphysical drain... The production gets off to a slow start. Atkins plays her breakfast banalities for laughs, but she fractionally overdoes it, making this 1958 play look a bit caricatured and creaky. That said, she combines seedy lust and girlish romantic delusions, like some distant cousin of Tennessee Williams' fading belles." The Independent on Sunday

"What wins the day for Lindsay Posner's production of The Birthday Party are two compelling performances from Henry Goodman and Eileen Atkins... Posner's direction is uneven. The two famous 'curtains' that end the two first acts - Stanley's ferocious pounding of a toy drum and the feverish game of blind man's buff - fail to shock as they should. None the less, an altogether admirable cast provides an overwhelming evening of taut speech rhythms and mysterious lacunae." The Sunday Telegraph

"Lindsay Posner's production of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party is set in a seaside boarding house stained as the inside of a gravy boat. It has the effect of situating the play within a sepia photograph, a time warp. But there is no reason for it to be treated as a period piece - as the freshness of the writing testifies. This production is vintage Pinter; I pined for something riskier... And it is predictable. Exactly as you would expect... There are two phrases employed by McCann and Goldberg: 'Everything's laid on' and 'It's all taken care of.' I am not convinced that in this production all has been taken care of, even though, undoubtedly, everything is laid on." The Observer