is lying spread-eagled on a table with Stanley bent over her. Stanley giggles madly as McCann and Goldberg move toward him and pin him against a wall.

In act 3, the next morning, Meg is unable to prepare Petey’s breakfast since Goldberg and McCann have eaten the last of the fried bread and they are out of cornflakes. She wants Stanley to come downstairs, but Petey tells her to let him sleep. Meg has seen Goldberg’s fancy car outside and is impressed. After she leaves, Goldberg comes down from Stanley’s room to say that Stanley has had a nervous breakdown. McCann arrives to report, “He’s quiet now. He stopped all that . . . talking a while ago.” McCann has returned Stanley’s eyeglasses, even though the frames are broken, and left Stanley trying to fit them on his face.

Goldberg has several times referred to his mother and his wife calling him Simey, but when McCann uses this name, Goldberg grabs him by the throat. Goldberg later refers to his father calling him Benny—and calls McCann Seamus. Lulu charges Goldberg with using her sexually and then abandoning her. McCann, who Goldberg says was defrocked as a priest six months earlier, demands that Lulu confess her sins to him—as Stanley has apparently done.

Clean and dressed, Stanley finally comes down but is unable to speak. Goldberg and McCann list all the things they are going to do for him. They want Stanley to discuss his prospects, but he can only babble incoherently. They are taking him to someone named Monty, and when Petey demands that they leave Stanley alone, Goldberg threatens, “Why don’t you come with us, Mr. Boles?” The frightened Petey can only retort, “Stan, don’t let them tell you what to do!” After they leave, Meg returns, and Petey tells her that Stanley is still asleep. Meg talks about how “lovely” the party was and how she was “the belle of the ball.”

The Birthday Party is full of the ominous pauses for which Pinter is famous, the breaks emphasizing the banality of the conversations and the uncertainty of the speakers. Pinter’s dialogue moves rapidly; the characters usually speak only one sentence (or sentence fragment) at a time, especially when Goldberg and McCann team up against Stanley. They perform these routines as if they were a pair of music-hall comedians, which makes their words all the more absurdly threatening. In the party scene, Goldberg demands (quite seriously) that Stanley answer the question “Why did the chicken cross the road?” Pinter uses humor not to alleviate tension but to emphasize the unreality of the situations:

MEG: That boy should be up. He’s late forhis breakfast.PETEY: There isn’t any breakfast.MEG: Yes, but he doesn’t know that.

Just as nothing in The Birthday Party is as it seems, much of the dialogue carries more than one meaning. Goldberg says that with Stanley’s party, “We’ll bring him out of himself.” Instead, they drive him within himself. Lulu refers to Goldberg’s drink: “You’re empty. Let me fill you up.” She tells him, “You’re the dead image of the first man I ever loved”; morally, he is empty and dead.

Pinter provides frequent visual clues to the significance of the action. McCann’s nervous tearing of paper indicates his instability. The drum not only helps explain Stanley’s relationship with Meg but also underscores how helpless he is; his eyeglasses further suggest that he cannot cope with the world without assistance. When McCann breaks them it foreshadows Stanley’s mental breakdown. Switching the lights off not only shows how lost he is, but also indicates that all the characters are stumbling in darkness; shining the light in his face illustrates his possible guilt. The game of blindman’s buff, played with a man attempting to bluff his way out of his predicament, is a metaphor for Stanley’s situation and the randomness of the modern world.

Seaside town

Seaside town. Unnamed coastal English town. Long popular with English vacationers, many English coastal towns featured amusement parks and other entertainments, along with public beaches. Some of the smaller coastal towns gained reputations for seedy raffishness as their old seafront hotels and tourist accommodations lost much of their former grandeur due to neglect and the ravages of time. They have been satirized in a number of literary works, including The Birthday Party, which is apparently set in one of them.

Boles boardinghouse

Boles boardinghouse. Dilapidated seaside establishment run by Meg and Petey Boles. For some time, it has had only one tenant, Stanley Webber. The play’s primary set is the Boleses’ living room, which has a table and chairs at its center and a square porthole in the wall separating it from the kitchen. That the home is cheaply run is apparent from the meager breakfast that Meg serves. Although she boasts of the house’s cleanliness and says it is on an approved list of such accommodations, her claims are probably exaggerated. Petey supplements their income by collecting paltry fees from people who use seaside deck chairs. The arrival of oddly menacing strangers, Goldberg and McCann, suggests the presence of something sinister beyond the household, but neither the name, the nature, nor the purpose of this menace is ever disclosed. As in the fiction of Franz Kafka, the lives of seemingly ordinary characters are intruded upon by inexplicable, sinister happenstance.

In the late 1950s, when Pinter wrote The Birthday Party, the developed nations were deeply entrenched in a cold war that set the communist powers of the Soviet Union and Red China against the free-world nations, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Fears of a third world war, potentially fought with atomic weapons, were widespread. At the beginning of the decade, the Korean War broke out, with communist North Korea and its ally, Red China, facing South Korea and a United Nations "police force" primarily made up of American troops. Further outbreaks of open warfare were threatened throughout the 1950s. For instance, in 1956, Hungarian rebels, who sought help from the West, were crushed by Soviet troops and tanks.

During this period, the United States and the Soviet Union began the "Space Race," an unofficial competition to demonstrate technological superiority. The Soviets launched Sputnik I in 1957, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. The following year, the United States launched its counterpart, Explorer 1. Meanwhile, other events were setting the stage for further armed conflicts. The 1954 Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into North and South Vietnam, leading to war and increasing U.S. involvement. In Cuba, Fidel Castro started the rebellion that would overthrow the dictator, Fulgencio Batista, leading to a communist takeover of the country.

Other nations were also forming significant alliances, not just for political but also for economic reasons. Of major importance to Great Britain, in 1957, the democratic countries of Western Europe formed the Common Market, from which England was initially excluded due to France's vigorous opposition. The following year, Egypt, Syria, and Yemen formed the United Arab States, partly in response to Israel's defeat and invasion of Egypt in 1956.

During these same years, Great Britain continued to decline as a major world power. Its influence in Africa and Asia was rapidly diminishing. In 1952, India, the jewel of the British Empire, gained its independence and elected its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, forcing the British to relinquish control and withdraw. Meanwhile, domestically, the British faced ongoing bombings and chaos caused by the outlawed Irish Republican Army (IRA), whose main objective was to liberate Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and incorporate it into the Republic of Ireland.

The decline of England's global prestige, though not always directly evident in British plays of the late 1950s, certainly contributed to the anger and detachment that characterized many of them. For many artists, in a time of doubt, pessimism, and insecurity, rage seemed to be the only authentic response.

John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) is often cited as the pivotal work in what is known as "Angry Theater." Its main character, Jimmy Porter, is enraged by living in a "pusillanimous" world that he feels powerless to change, and thus he disconnects from it. Despite Osborne's use of modern language and anti-heroic figures, his approach, like that of most "Angries," remains fundamentally conventional.

Nevertheless, the themes of alienation and helplessness prevalent in some angry plays were also expressed through the innovative drama of absurdist playwrights, such as Beckett and Ionesco. Their works, brought over from Paris, showcased both revolutionary dramatic techniques and existential themes of nausea and ennui. London audiences were introduced to this highly controversial form of theater in 1956, when English-language productions of Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Ionesco's The Bald Soprano were performed.

Harold Pinter deserves recognition for merging these new elements. In his early plays, including The Birthday Party, Pinter successfully fused absurdist features with the prevailing angry mood and detachment that characterized the new wave in British theater.

SettingThe Birthday Party is set entirely in the living-dining room of a seaside boarding house located somewhere on the English coast. This nondescript location enhances the sense of the setting as a symbolic place, especially in allegorical readings of the play.

While doors allow characters to enter and leave the room, certain features suggest the room is cut off from the outside world. The wall between the room and the kitchen includes a hatch, enabling characters in the kitchen to look into the room, reminiscent of jailors observing a prison cell. Additionally, windows allow characters to see into the room but offer no real view of the outside world.

References to the world beyond the room provide almost no clues about time or place. Petey reads a newspaper (which McCann later destroys), but the information he shares is insignificant. The names and locations mentioned are either unhelpful or misleading. For instance, in his fantasy concert tour, Stanley refers to Constantinople, a city that became Istanbul in the fifteenth century. During their interrogation of Stanley, Goldberg and McCann ask about Blessed Oliver Plunket, an Irish Catholic martyr executed in England in 1681, and the medieval Albigensian heresy. These perplexing references contribute to the impression that the setting is either a symbolic microcosm or an existential, timeless void.

Symbolism and AllegoryThe Birthday Party has often been interpreted as a modern allegory, justified or not. This interpretation stems partly from the fact that the play's setting is barely anchored in a world beyond its confines. Pinter's intentional ambiguity and fragmented information suggest a symbolic purpose. Certain elements seem particularly ripe for interpretation, such as the toy drum, the birthday party itself, McCann's seemingly senseless act of breaking Stanley's glasses, and Stanley being dressed in respectable clothes before being taken away.

However, fitting these diverse elements into a consistent allegory has proven challenging. Some speculate that Stanley represents the modern artist who has abandoned his responsibilities to both his craft and society, choosing instead to live in a passive, irresponsible state. Critics have noted that the play's setting is womb-like, providing Stanley with comfort and security while isolating him from the outside world. Despite this refuge, the place is dingy and depressing, and Stanley is clearly unhappy living there. He seems to bear some form of guilt, which Goldberg and McCann exploit, suggesting there will be retribution for Stanley's supposed wrongdoings, possibly even death. Yet, some of their dialogue in the final act implies they are not merely inquisitors and potential executioners but exorcists and healers aiming to restore Stanley. These ambiguities make a consistent allegorical interpretation of the play difficult.

StructureThe Birthday Party may contain absurdist features, but it adheres to a traditional three-act format and a linear timeline. The narrative starts on the morning of Stanley's supposed birthday and wraps up the next morning after Goldberg and McCann have taken him away. Both the first and second acts conclude with intense, almost frenzied scenes: the wild drumming at the end of Act I and the near-assault on Lulu in Act II. In contrast, the final act, like the beginning of the first, is emotionally subdued, returning to the trivial chatter between Meg and Petey. Meg, unaware of Stanley's departure, engages in small talk about the party, while Petey attempts to read.

This conventional structure generally imposes predictable behavior patterns on characters, but Pinter disrupts these norms, occasionally allowing his characters to act unpredictably. For instance, during the birthday party in Act II, Stanley suddenly becomes violent without any clear reason. Additionally, there are peculiar actions that verge on the bizarre, such as when Goldberg asks McCann to blow in his mouth in the final act. These odd behaviors create a jarring contrast with the more predictable events typically found in such a traditional setup.

Foreshadowing
While teasing Meg, Stanley mentions that two strangers arriving at the boarding house will bring a van and a wheelbarrow to cart someone away. Meg, who easily falls for Stanley's tricks, becomes anxious, fearing she might be their target.

Though Stanley aims to scare Meg, his description actually foreshadows his own fate. He is the one who will be taken away. His teasing narrative predicts the ominous arrival of Goldberg and McCann, serving as a crucial piece of foreshadowing.

IronyThe Birthday Party features several ironic elements. Notably, there are ironic contrasts in character, particularly with Goldberg. Outwardly, he appears friendly and charming, embodying traditional values and family loyalty, yet he is also sexually abusive and depraved. McCann, his partner, who might be a killer, is quiet and meticulous, often seen tearing newspaper into strips—a seemingly mundane activity given his violent intentions. Like Ben and Gus in Pinter's The Dumbwaiter or the hitmen in Hemingway's short story "The Killers," the pair appear civilized and composed, not aggressive or anxious. This ironic disparity between their normal exterior and their hidden, violent motives makes them particularly threatening and ominous.

Nonsense
While the nonsense in Pinter's The Birthday Party is not as overt as in Ionesco's works, it is still present. This has led some critics to observe Ionesco's influence on Pinter's play.

In the play, which steers clear of farce, the absurdity is primarily conveyed through dialogue. In the final act, this nonsense manifests as Stanley's garbled, choking noises. However, it also appears in Act II, during a bizarre and disjointed interrogation conducted by Goldberg and McCann when they are alone with Stanley. The two henchmen bombard him with a series of unrelated and frequently unanswerable questions, many of which are utterly ridiculous. This barrage offers clues but no clear insight into the true intentions of the two men.

1950s: Britain's status as a global power continues to diminish, facing ongoing challenges to its remaining influence. This decline culminates in armed conflict in 1982 during the war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.

Today: While the United Kingdom still controls some distant territories, including the Falklands, it handed over Hong Kong, its last significant Crown Colony in the Far East, to China in 1998. The dissolution of the once vast British Empire is nearly complete.

1950s: Popular culture is about to explode with the emergence of television and rock music, though traditional venues like the English dance hall remain popular. These halls showcase sentimental ballads, swing dance music, and vaudeville comedians.

Today: Television and rock music are dominant forces in Western culture. The dance hall has disappeared, replaced by large-scale arena concerts.

1950s: The Irish Republican Army (IRA) seeks to end British rule in Northern Ireland, posing a constant threat with sporadic and varying levels of activity. The organization uses terrorist tactics, including the murder of British soldiers and bombings of government and commercial buildings. Hints in Pinter's The Birthday Party suggest that Stanley may have betrayed the IRA.

Today: Although radical factions of the IRA still resort to violence, significant efforts have been made by both the British government and the political wing of the IRA to negotiate a resolution to the Irish "question." The process remains challenging, partly due to the strong Protestant presence in Northern Ireland. However, there is hope. Negotiators have established truces that both sides strive to uphold, and representatives from the IRA and the British government continue to engage in talks, something unimaginable in the 1950s.

On March 22, 1960, two years after its initial performance, The Birthday Party was broadcast by ARD (Associated Rediffusion-TV). Directed by Joan Kemp-Welch, the cast included Richard Pearson as Stanley and Margery Withers as Meg. Unfortunately, the video has not been made available.

In 1968, The Birthday Party was adapted into a film in Britain. Produced by Max Rosenberg, Edgar J. Scherick, and Milton Subotsky, it was directed by William Friedkin and adapted by Pinter. The film stars Robert Shaw as Stanley, Patrick Magee as Shamus McCann, Dandy Nichols as Meg Bowles, Sidney Tafler as Nat Goldberg, Moultrie Kelsall as Pete Bowles, and Helen Fraser as Lulu. This film has not yet been released on video in the United States.

In 1986, The Birthday Party was produced once more for British television by Rosemary Hill. Directed by Kenneth Ives, the production featured Colin Blakely as McCann, Kenneth Cranham as Stanley, Robert Lang as Petey, Harold Pinter as Goldberg, Joan Plowright as Meg, and Julie Walters as Lulu. This video has also not been released in the United States.

SOURCES
Brustein, Robert. "A Naturalism of the Grotesque" in the New Republic, Volume CXLV, 1961, p. 21.

Darlington, W. A. "Enjoyable Pinter" in the Daily Telegraph, June 21, 1964, p. 18.

Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd, revised and enlarged edition, Penguin Books, 1976.

Ganz, Arthur, editor, Introduction to Pinter: A Collection of Critical Essays, Prentice-Hall, 1972.

Hobson, Harold. "The Screw Turns Again" in the Times, May 25, 1958, p. 11.

Hollis, James. Harold Pinter: The Poetics of Silence, Southern Illinois University Press, 1970, p. 15.

M. M. W., "The Birthday Party" in the Manchester Guardian, May 21, 1958, p. 5.

"Puzzling Surrealism of The Birthday Party" in the Times, May 20, 1958, p. 3.

Shulman, Milton. "Sorry, Mr. Pinter, You're Just Not Funny Enough" in the Evening Standard, May 20, 1958, p. 6.

Tynan, Kenneth. "A Verbal Wizard in the Suburbs" in the Observer, June 5, 1960, p. 17.

FURTHER READING
Burkman, Katherine H. The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter: Its Basis in Ritual, University of Ohio Press, 1971.
This study explores Pinter's early plays not as comedies but as reimaginings of ancient fertility myths and rituals.

Dukore, Bernard F. Where Laughter Stops: Pinter's Tragicomedy, University of Missouri Press, 1976.
This concise study argues that Pinter's technique transitions from humor to elements that are unsettling and menacing, while the source material for both remains the same.

Esslin, Martin. Pinter: A Study of His Plays, expanded edition, W. W. Norton, 1976.
Esslin, author of The Theatre of the Absurd, approaches Pinter in a similar manner, aiming to elucidate the enigmatic aspects of the playwright's work by examining influences, sources, and techniques underlying "Pinterese." The work includes a helpful chronology spanning from 1930 to 1975.

Gabbard, Lucina Paquet. The Dream Structure of Pinter's Plays: A Psychoanalytic Approach, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1976.
As the title suggests, Gabbard employs a Freudian approach, linking various dramatic motifs in Pinter's early plays to Oedipal and other subconscious desires. She interprets The Birthday Party as "a punishment dream" symbolically incorporating "the wish to kill."

Gale, Steven H. Butter's Going Up: A Critical Analysis of Harold Pinter's Work, Duke University Press, 1977.
This straightforward study of Pinter's work up to 1976 provides succinct interpretations of each piece and includes valuable aids for further study, such as chronologies and an annotated bibliography. It views The Birthday Party as thematically related to two other "comedies of menace:" The Room and The Dumbwaiter.

Hinchliffe, Arnold P. Harold Pinter, revised edition, Twayne, 1981.
This bio-critical study offers a comprehensive overview of Pinter's early work and includes useful aids. Three key chapters for studying The Birthday Party are 1. ("The Pinter Problem"), 2. ("Language and Silence"), and 3. ("Comedies of Menace"). The book also includes a chronology and bibliography.

Kerr, Walter, Harold Pinter, Columbia University Press, 1967.
A notable critic of British theater, Kerr examines Pinter through an Existentialist lens, interpreting his early plays in the context of the philosophy's view on the inherent absurdity of the human condition and its related feelings of nausea and dread.

Killinger, John, World in Collapse: The Vision of Absurd Drama, Dell, 1961.
This valuable resource aids in understanding absurdist plays by identifying and discussing the origins and purposes of various motifs and techniques used by writers such as Beckett, Ionesco, and Pinter.

Knowles, Ronald, Understanding Harold Pinter, University of South Carolina Press, 1995.
Part of the "Understanding Contemporary British Literature" series, this concise monograph by Knowles provides an overview of Pinter's accomplishments in theater, radio, television, and film, as well as the influences on his work. Knowles describes The Birthday Party as an "amalgam" of various cultural undercurrents.

Taylor, John Russell, Anger and After: A Guide to New British Drama, revised edition, Methuen, 1969.
Also known as The Angry Theatre, this insightful study offers a critical survey of British drama from 1956 through the 1960s. It includes a significant chapter on Pinter, highlighting him as the most poetic writer among the new wave dramatists. Taylor notes that Pinter intentionally uses conflicting assertions by characters to prevent easy and superficial interpretation.