The Birthday Party

[Mickey Mouse]

The author of this play is the winner of the Noble-prize for literature Harold Pinter (1930 – 2008).

The birthday party is a representative of the Theatre of the Absurd and was written in 1957.

 

The very short story is set in a rural village near to London and describes two days of the life of the protagonist named Stanley. He seems to be quite common and appears to be not interesting at all, but when two other men (called Goldberg and McCann) visit him for his birthday and decide to stay overnight at the rundown boarding house, where Stanley lives, everything changes...

 

I have read the book within just 2 hours, partly because it is so short and partly because I was fascinated by the plot itself and the easygoing style of writing of Harold Pinter, with which he creates on the one hand a rather simple storyline, but on the other hand something quite complicated.

But what do I mean by complicated?

 

I merely try to point out that in comparison to the plot, which is not difficult to understand, an appropriate analysis and interpretation of the story is quite tricky.

I for myself was unfortunately not able to figure out a satisfactory explication of Harold Pinter's masterpiece.

 

Has somebody read this book? How would you interpret the story itself? Did you like it?