The Birthday Party

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At a glance

Harold Pinter was working as an actor in England when he stayed briefly at a dilapidated boardinghouse that would serve as his inspiration for both The Birthday Party and The Room. As he has explained in many published works, he wrote more from intuition than from intellect, exploring his characters without pre-decided narratives in mind, and this one encounter was inspirational not because of people he met there, but because of a certain visceral feeling it gave him.

Pinter wrote The Birthday Party in 1957, after his one act play The Room attracted the attention of Michael Codron, a producer who saw much promise in the quirky playwright. The Birthday Party is Pinter’s first full length play, and the first of three plays considered his “comedy of menace” pieces. The other two are The Caretaker and The Homecoming.

"Comedy of menace," a term coined by critic Irving Wardle, describes a play which paints a realistic picture while creating a subtext of intrigue and confusion, as if the playwright were employing a sleight-of-hand trick. Pinter once said, “What I write has no obligation to anything other than to itself,” which both belies the designation Wardle gave his plays, and acknowledges the originality that inspired such a designation in the first place. Inspired by other unconventional playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Pinter transcended traditional theater by staging a familiar setting (the English home) and then throwing it into a state of confusion with lies, deceit, and chaos. These juxtapositions would be further explored by Martin Esslin in his seminal study Theatre of the Absurd.

The Birthday Party premiered in Cambridge's Arts Theater on April 28, 1958, with Willoughby Gray as Petey and Richard Pearson as Stanley. Pinter directed the initial productions himself, but Peter Wood took his place as director once the play hit the pre-London stage. Though the play was received well in Cambridge, it was a resounding failure during its run at the Lyric Opera House in Hammersmith. The avant-garde writing and the confusing subtext sat poorly with critics and audiences alike..



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.Summary

Act I

The play begins in the living room of a seaside boardinghouse in 1950s England. Petey, the boardinghouse owner, and his wife Meg, both in their sixties, sit at the living room table and engage in tepid conversation while eating breakfast. Meg is an inquisitive character who peppers Petey with repeated questions concerning his food, his job, etc. Petey informs his wife that two gentlemen will soon arrive to stay at the boardinghouse; he met them the night before. Meg is flustered by the news at first, but quickly recovers to promise she will have a room ready for them.

She then calls out to Stanley Webber, their boarder who is asleep upstairs. When he doesn’t answer, she goes upstairs to fetch him, and then returns a bit disheveled but amused. Stanley, a bespectacled, unkempt, surly man in his thirties, soon follows. Petey and Stanley speak of mundane topics while Meg prepares cornflakes and fried bread for Stanley’s breakfast. After Petey leaves for work, the atmosphere changes. Meg flirts with Stanley, who jokingly calls her “succulent” while criticizing her housework. When Meg becomes affectionate, he rudely pushes her away and insults her. Meg then informs him that two gentlemen are coming. The news unsettles Stanley, who has been the only boarder for years. He accuses Meg of lying, but she insists that she speaks the truth.

Before Meg leaves to shop, Lulu, a young girl in her twenties, arrives with a package. Meg instructs Lulu to keep the package from Stanley, and then she leaves. Lulu and Stanley chat for a little while, mostly about Stanley’s lack of enthusiasm and his appearance. Lulu calls him a “wash out” and then quickly exits. Stanley washes his face in the kitchen, and then leaves by the kitchen door. In the meantime, Goldberg and McCann enter the living room. They are the two gentlemen who had requested rooms for the evening.

It becomes immediately apparent that Goldberg and McCann have come under mysterious circumstances to “finish a job.” The job in question seems to be Stanley, though details are scarce. Goldberg reassures McCann that they are at the right house, and that this job will cause no more stress than their jobs usually cause them. Goldberg rambles on about his uncle until Meg arrives, and introductions are made.

Goldberg’s sweet temperament and suave demeanor soon set Meg at ease. Goldberg asks after Stanley, and Meg tells him that Stanley was once a successful pianist but had to give it up. Meg also reveals that it is Stanley’s birthday, and Goldberg suggests they have a party. Thrilled with the idea, Meg shows the gentlemen to their room. Later, Stanley returns to the living room as Meg arrives to put the groceries away. She tells him about the two gentlemen, and Stanley is visibly upset to learn Goldberg’s name. To cheer him up, Meg suggests he open his birthday present, even though Stanley insists that it is not his birthday. To humor Meg, he opens the package and finds a toy drum with drumsticks. He hangs the drum around his neck and parades around the table beating the drum merrily until his rhythm becomes erratic and chaotic. He beats the drum possessively and looms over Meg with a crazed expression on his face.

Act II

Later that same evening, McCann sits at the living room table shredding a newspaper into five equal strips. Stanley arrives, and the two men awkwardly greet one another. McCann, in a calm tone of voice, congratulates Stanley on his birthday, and says it is an honor to be invited to his party. Stanley replies that he wants to spend the evening alone and tries to leave, but McCann will not let him.

Stanley sits at the table and touches one of the newspaper strips, which upsets McCann. Stanley speaks of his past, and suggests he has never been one to cause trouble. Stanley insists that he has met McCann before, and grows upset when McCann denies the connection. Stanley wants to know why he and Goldberg are at the boardinghouse, and grows frantic when McCann claims they are there on a short holiday. Desperate, Stanley grabs McCann’s arm, who violently hits him off. Shocked into submission, Stanley calms himself and speaks of his love for Ireland, for its people, its sunsets, and its police. He asks McCann to accompany him to a nearby pub, but is interrupted when Petey and Goldberg enter the room.

Petey introduces Stanley to Goldberg, and then leaves. The situation in the room grows tense, as Goldberg yammers on about his past. Despite Goldberg’s soothing words, Stanley remains on edge and refuses to sit down when McCann asks him to. It is not McCann's threats that convince him to sit, but rather Goldberg's quiet insistence.

After Stanley submits, Goldberg and McCann interrogate him about his past - they accuse him of betraying their “organization,” of killing his wife, of leaving his bride at the altar, of being a waste of space, and more. Stanley answers at first, but is soon struck dumb by the sheer number of questions being thrown at him. The questions grow progressively more ridiculous and nonsensical. Finally, Stanley hits Goldberg in the stomach. McCann and Stanley threaten each other with chairs, but are cooed back into civility when Meg arrives, beating Stanley’s toy drum. She is dressed for his birthday party. Goldberg compliments her, and the tense atmosphere quickly dissipates as Meg makes a moving tribute to Stanley in a toast while McCann flashes a torch in Stanley’s face like a spotlight. Lulu arrives, and Goldberg gives a second toast which includes more reminiscing.

The party begins in earnest. Lulu and Goldberg flirt, while Meg and McCann speak of Ireland. Stanley sits alone at the table until Meg suggests they all play blind man’s bluff. During Stanley’s turn, he is blindfolded by McCann, who breaks his glasses and puts the toy drum in his path so that Stanley’s foot smashes through it. When Stanley reaches Meg, he begins to strangle her. Goldberg and McCann pull him off, but then the lights suddenly go out. In the darkness, the two gentlemen cannot find Lulu, who has screamed and fainted. McCann shines his flashlight on the table to discover Stanley standing over Lulu as though about to sexually assault her. He giggles manically as the men slowly approach him and the curtain closes.

Act III

The next morning, Petey sits at the living room table reading a newspaper, while Meg frets about having no breakfast food left. Her memory is hazy from the night before, and she forgets that Petey was not there as she tries to remember what happened. When she leaves to shop, she sees Goldberg's car in the driveway, and grows frightened. Petey calms her down.

As Meg prepares to leave again, Goldberg enters the room and sits at the table. Meg asks him about the car, but he ignores her. She finally leaves. Petey asks Goldberg about Stanley, and Goldberg explains that Stanley suffered a nervous breakdown, and needs to be taken to a doctor whom Goldberg knows. Petey wants to see Stanley when he wakes, despite Goldberg's insistence that he should simply leave for work.

McCann enters with two suitcases, and tells Goldberg that Stanley is trying to fit his broken glasses into his eyes. When Petey suggests a way to fix the glasses and offers to fetch a doctor, Goldberg dismisses him. Petey departs to tend to his peas, insisting he be told when Stanley wakes, and Goldberg sits slumped over the table.

McCann demands they expedite the job, but Goldberg ignores him. Angry, McCann shakes Goldberg's chair and calls him "Simey," which causes the latter to attack him. McCann pacifies Goldberg, who then admits he feels poorly and is confused by the feeling. He tells McCann about his father and about his own principles on family, and finally makes a strange request by asking McCann to blow into his mouth twice. McCann does so without question, and Goldberg is calmed.

Lulu enters, and McCann leaves them alone. Lulu accuses Goldberg of having taken sexual advantage of her the night before. They argue over blame until McCann reenters and tells Lulu to confess her sins. Startled by this bizarre turn of events, Lulu flees. McCann then leaves to fetch Stanley, who enters cleanly shaven and nicely dressed. The two men seem to take pity on Stanley, and Goldberg promises to buy him new glasses. In a reprise of the interrogation from Act II, they pepper Stanley with gentler questions and comments. Goldberg asks Stanley if he wants to leave with them, but Stanley can only muster gurgling sounds. They begin to exit with Stanley, but Petey arrives and tells them to stop. Menacingly, they ask Petey if he wants to accompany them. Petey allows the two men to take Stanley away, but before they leave, he cries out “Stan, don’t let them tell you what to do!”

Afterward, Petey returns to the living room table and picks up his newspaper. Meg arrives and asks if Stanley has come down to breakfast yet. Petey lies and tells her Stanley is still sleeping.

Themes

 

Atonement

One of the great ironies in this play is that it uses what appears to be a fairly undramatic, realistic setting which nevertheless hides a surplus of guilt. The theme of atonement runs throughout the play. Stanley's past is never detailed, but he is clearly a guilty man. He is vague about his past, and does anything to distract Goldberg and McCann. He does not wish to atone for whatever he did, but is forced to do so through torture. Goldberg, too, wishes to avoid whatever sins torture him but cannot fully escape them; his mood in Act III shows that he is plagued by feelings he does not wish to have. In the end, all of the characters are like Lulu, who flees when McCann offers her a chance to confess - everyone has sins to atone for, but nobody wants to face them.

Complacency

Perhaps the most pessimistic aspect of The Birthday Party is that the only alternative Pinter gives to chaos and confusion is a life of apathy and complacency. The play's opening sets this up - Petey and Meg reveal a comfortable but bland life in which they talk in pleasantries and ignore anything of substance. Stanley might be more aggressive than they are, but he too has clearly chosen the safety of complacency, as he makes no effort to change his life. His lethargic lifestyle reflects the attraction comfort has for him. When Goldberg and McCann arrive, they challenge this complacent lifestyle until the whole place falls into chaos. Ultimately, Petey chooses to refortify the complacency of the boardinghouse over bravely fighting for Stanley; neither choice is truly attractive.

Confusion and Chaos

A key element of “the absurdist theater” is its focus on confusion and chaos. In The Birthday Party, these elements manifest constantly, especially through its characters.

The primary way in which the themes manifest are through the ambiguities of lives and pasts. Stanley has some sort of mysterious past that deserves a violent reckoning, but nobody really provides its details. When Stanley describes his past to Meg in Act I, there is even the sense that he himself is confused about its particulars. Goldberg's name and past seem shrouded in mystery and delusion, and Meg convinces herself to believe things about her life that are clearly not true. Further, because of these type of confusions, the situation devolves into total chaos. From the moment Goldberg and McCann arrive, the audience can sense that the simplicity of the boardinghouse is about to be compromised, and indeed, the chaos at the end of Act II confirms it.

The only truth of The Birthday Party is that there is no truth, only chaos and confusion from which we make order if we choose.

Language

The precision Pinter employs in crafting his rhythmic silences is enough to justify language as a major theme, but he moreover reveals how language can be used as a tool. Each of the characters uses language to his or her advantage. In effect, characters manipulate words to suggest deeper subtexts, so that the audience understands that true communication happens beneath language, and not through words themselves. When Stanley insults Meg, he is actually expressing his self-hatred and guilt. Goldberg is a master of language manipulation - he uses speeches to deflect others questions, to redirect the flow of conversation, or to reminisce about past events. His words are rarely wasted. Meg, on the other hand, repeats herself, asking the same questions over and over again in a bid for attention. Even though she often speaks without affectation, her words mask a deep neurosis and insecurity. These are just a few examples of instances in which language is used not to tell the story, but to suggest that the story is hidden. In essence, language in The Birthday Party is a dangerous lie.

Nostalgia

Perhaps most fitting for a contemporary audience who would see this play as something of a period piece, the theme of nostalgia is implicit but significant in The Birthday Party. Goldberg, particularly, is taken by nostalgia, frequently waxing poetic both on his own past and on the 'good old days' when men respected women. Certainly, Goldberg tells some of these stories to contrast with the way Stanley treats women, but they also suggest a delusion he has, a delusion that breaks down when he himself assaults Lulu between the second and third acts. He idealizes some past that he cannot live up to.

Other characters reveal an affection for nostalgia as well. During the birthday party, Meg and Lulu both speak of their childhoods. However, their nostalgic feelings have darker sides. Meg remembers being abandoned, whereas Lulu's memories of being young lead Goldberg to bounce her perversely on his knee. Similarly, the characters play blind man's bluff specifically because it makes them nostalgic, but the sinister side of such nostalgia is inescapable in the stage image of Stanley preparing to rape Lulu. Nostalgia is lovely to feel, the play seems to suggest, but more insidious in its complexities.

Much of the violence in the play concerns women. Stanley not only intimidates Meg verbally, but he also prepares to assault Lulu. Goldberg in fact does assault Lulu. Finally, the threat of violence is ever-present in the play. Even before we realize that disaster might come, we can feel the potential through the many silences and tense atmosphere.

Sex

Sexual tension is present throughout the entire play, and it results in tragic consequences. Meg and Stanley have a strange, possible sexual relationship that frees him to treat her very cruelly. The ugliness of his behavior is echoed when Goldberg calls him a “mother defiler” and “a lecher.” In fact, Goldberg suggests that Stanley's unnamed sin involves his poor treatment of a woman. Lulu seems interested in Stanley as well, but is quickly attracted to Goldberg in Act II. Her innocence makes her prey to men's sexuality. Her openness leads to two consecutive sexual assaults, and yet she is nevertheless upset to learn that Goldberg is leaving. All in all, it is a strange, perverse undercurrent throughout the play - sex is acknowledged as a fact of life, and yet does not ever reveal positive aspects of the characters.

Violence

The Birthday Party is full of violence, both physical and emotional, overall suggesting that violence is a fact of life. The violence is doubly affecting because the setting seems so pleasant and ordinary. Most of the men show their potential for violence, especially when provoked. Stanley is cruel and vicious towards Meg, but much more cowardly against other men. Both McCann and Goldberg have violent outbursts no matter how hard they try to contain themselves. Their entire operation, which boasts an outward civility, has an insidious purpose, most violent for the way it tortures Stanley slowly to force him to nervous breakdown. In both Acts II and III, they reveal how language itself can be violent in the interrogation scenes.

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.Characters

Petey

Petey Boles is the owner of the rundown boarding house in which the play takes place. He is 60 years old and married to Meg. Petey works a deckchair attendant at an unspecified seaside resort near his home on the shores of England.

As the play continues, Petey’s character is revealed to be more astute. He realizes that Goldberg and McCann are more insidious than they seem, and probably knows of his wife and Stanley's strange relationship. While Petey seems to know quite a lot more than he lets on, he ultimately reveals that he will do little to compromise the comfortable, delusional existence he shares with Meg.

Meg

Meg Boles is a kind woman who helps run the boardinghouse. She is sixty years old and married to Petey in a seemingly childless marriage. Absentminded and simplistic, Meg often asks repetitive questions and constantly requires attention. While she does carry on a sexually-tinged relationship with Stanley, Meg lives a rather humdrum life that allows her to maintain certain delusions about her attractiveness and popularity, delusions which she works hard to protect even as the play goes to darker places.

Stanley

Stanley Webber is ostensibly the protagonist of the play. He is the only boarder at the Boles's boardinghouse, and is initially defined by laziness, unkemptness, and smug cruelty towards Meg. The many details of his past are never confirmed - he might be a musician, might have been famous, etc. - although there is a sense that he has sins unatoned for. His aggressive depression transitions into a nervous breakdown when Goldberg and McCann arrive, until he is nothing but a bumbling idiot in Act III.

Goldberg's problems seem to be connected to his past - he is nostalgic about family, and waxes poetic about the old days. To what extent these delusions explain and/or feed his anger and violence are left to the reader's imagination.

McCann

Dermot McCann is an Irish member of an unnamed "organization" that has hired him to take Stanley away from the boardinghouse. Unlike Goldberg, who uses words and charm to his advantage, McCann is a paragon of bodily aggression. He lacks much social skill, and is something of a simpleton.

Goldberg

Nat Goldberg, also called “Simey” and “Benny,” is a Jewish gentleman who works for an unnamed "organization" that has employed him to take Stanley away from the boardinghouse. He is defined by his outwardly polite and suave demeanor, which stands in stark contrast to that of his associate McCann. However, he ultimately reveals an angry, violent streak beneath this suave demeanor.

Lulu

A young woman in her twenties, Lulu is an acquaintance of Meg’s and a visitor to the boardinghouse. She is childish and flirtatious, and though she seems initially interested in Stanley, she is easily attracted to Goldberg's charms. Her girlish qualities become ironically unsettling after she is sexually assaulted.

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.Theater of the Absurd

Martin Esslin, a theater critic, coined the term “Theater of the Absurd” to describe a number of works being produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s that defied any traditional genres. The most famous playwright associated with this movement include Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, and of course, Harold Pinter.

The term "absurd" was originally used by Albert Camus in his 1942 essay “Myth of Sisyphus,” wherein he described the human condition as “meaningless and absurd.” The key element to an absurdist play is that the main characters are out of sync with the world around them. There is no discernable reasoning behind their strangeness, though a threatening sense of change shakes their existence to the core.

Influences on the absurdist theater go as far back as the Elizabethan tragicomedies of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The tragic plays Macbeth and Hamlet offer segments of comedy that shift the play's perspective, if only for the briefest moments. For example, Hamlet’s wit and the porter scene in Macbeth offer moments of comedy to alleviate the drama's intensity. Other influences on the absurdist playwrights include the work of Sigmund Freud, and the Surrealist movement of the 1920s and 1930s, which introduced the avant-garde to mainstream media.

However, the largest influence was World War II and its aftermath. Like Pinter, who was a child during the war, many Englishmen and women felt disillusioned once the war was over. They were angry and upset with the world, but found it difficult to express their collective opinions. In such a damaged world, it was no longer feasible to use traditional methods of storytelling on stage. The human condition was too complex and fragmented, and the old forms of language were hence inappropriate for exploring it.

To shake audiences from their more conventional viewing habits, the playwrights of the Absurdist Theater used traditional settings to ease the audience into their plays, and then shocked them with surreal imagery, uncommon circumstances, or fragmented language. Language within the Absurdist Theater often transcended its base meaning. As in The Birthday Party, nothing is as it seems and no one speaks the whole truth. Also, the use of silence as language was often utilized in these plays.

The drama of the absurdist theater is dreamlike, almost lyrical. Like the Surrealists before them, the absurdist playwrights use imagery, subtext, mythology, and allegory to express a deeper meaning which is often never fully explained. In fact, the playwrights of the Theater of the Absurd allowed their plays to speak for themselves. Pinter explained this absurdist concept best in his 1962 speech “Writing for the Theatre,” which was presented at the National Student Drama Festival in Bristol. He said, “I suggest there can be no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false.” The thin line between truth and lies is perhaps the defining characteristic of the Theater of the Absurd.

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Why is the play The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter absurdist?

Absurdist drama is about the illogical nature of the world and its lack of meaning. The main character in The Birthday Party, Stanley Webber, is an unemployed pianist, but he asks Meg, who runs the boarding house where he lives, "I haven't got a piano, have I?" Stanley is unaware of even the basic nature of his existence. Later, Stanley tells Meg, who is celebrating Stanley's birthday, "This isn't my birthday, Meg," even though she reassures him it is. Stanley is unsure even of when he was born, showing his alienation and uncertainty about the world. 

When two agents named Goldberg and McCann arrive to question Stanley, their questions veer into the absurd. Goldberg asks Stanley, "Who watered the wicket in Melbourne?" and McCann adds, "What about the blessed Oliver Plunkett?" Goldberg and McCann continue to ask questions that have no answers as they grill Stanley. They use this absurdism to torture Stanley. However, conversation in this play has no meaning, and words are only used to confuse people. The confusing nature of words supports the idea that the world is absurd and that the search for meaning is pointless. 




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