Pinter, Harold (Vol. 3) - Pinter, Harold 1930–

Pinter, Harold 1930–

Pinter, a distinguished British dramatist, is usually named as one of the leading contributors to the Theatre of the Absurd. His plays are filled with non sequiturs and peopled with characters who are unable to communicate above the level of the banal. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.)

Pinter has an extremely acute sense of stage situations—a perception of what will "go" on stage. In all of his plays, static and incomprehensible though they may often seem, Pinter demonstrates a truly extraordinary ear for the speech patterns of ordinary people, as well as a highly developed ability to create interest and suspense by means of a series of momentarily sustained conflicts. The dialogue in Pinter's plays fascinates by its very monotony and repetitiousness because the audience recognizes it—they have heard this sort of talk before…. Pinter knows where to stop: precisely where real-life...

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