Pinter's People

Last updated

Pinter's People is a compilation of revue sketches or short prose works by Harold Pinter, which was performed for four weeks from 30 January 2007, at the Haymarket Theatre, in London, starring Bill Bailey, Geraldine McNulty, Sally Phillips, and Kevin Eldon. The show was assembled by Bailey and directed by Sean Foley. [1] [2]

It included:

Critical response

The reviews were not good. Charles Spencer, in The Daily Telegraph described the show as "one of the most punishingly unfunny evenings I have ever endured in a theatre." [2] In The Guardian, Michael Billington commented, "Pinter’s people have been turned into lurching grotesques and the result does a grave disservice both to the writer and comic acting." [3] Benedict Nightingale in The Times wrote: "Last night I was sickened by some of the coarsest performances I have ever seen in a London playhouse", before going on to praise the second half of the show. [4] The Observer was more favourable however, mentioning "the great pleasures of the evening" and praised the performers. [5]

Pinter himself was quick to defend the cast and the show, saying "I'm all for it. I admire these people in Pinter's People. I really think they're a great bunch - they're so robust and energetic. I think they were terrific." [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Pinter</span> English playwright (1930–2008)

Harold Pinter was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964) and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993) and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television and film productions of his own and others' works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy West</span> English film, stage, and television actor

Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English actor and presenter. He has appeared frequently on both stage and television, including stints in both Coronation Street and EastEnders, and also in Not Going Out, as the original Geoffrey Adams. He is married to the actress Prunella Scales; since 2014 they have been seen travelling together on British and overseas canals in the Channel 4 series Great Canal Journeys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Gambon</span> Irish-English actor

Sir Michael John Gambon is an Irish-English actor. Regarded as one of Ireland and Britain's most distinguished actors, he is known for his work on stage and screen. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six decade long career he's received three Olivier Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and four BAFTA Awards. In 1999 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.

Sir Trevor Robert Nunn is a British theatre director. He has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed dramas for the stage, like Macbeth, as well as opera and musicals, such as Cats (1981) and Les Misérables (1985).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Hall (director)</span> English theatre, opera and film director (1930–2017)

Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognizing achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre Royal Haymarket</span> West-End theatre in London, England

The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote acquired the lease in 1747, and in 1766 he gained a royal patent to play legitimate drama in the summer months. The original building was a little further north in the same street. It has been at its current location since 1821, when it was redesigned by John Nash. It is a Grade I listed building, with a seating capacity of 888. The freehold of the theatre is owned by the Crown Estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toby Stephens</span> British actor

Toby Stephens is an English actor who has appeared in films in the UK, US and India. He is known for the roles of Bond villain Gustav Graves in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day, of William Gordon in the 2005 Mangal Pandey: The Rising film, Edward Fairfax Rochester in a BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre and as Captain Flint in the Starz television series Black Sails. Stephens was one of the leads in the Netflix science fiction series Lost in Space, which began streaming in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Eldon</span> British actor and comedian

Kevin Eldon is an English actor and comedian. He featured in British comedy television shows of the 1990s including Fist of Fun, This Morning with Richard Not Judy, Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Big Train, Brass Eye and Jam. In 2013, Eldon appeared in his own BBC sketch series It's Kevin. He has also appeared in minor speaking roles in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lloyd Owen</span> English actor (born 1966)

Richard Marcus Lloyd Owen is an English actor. Trained at the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, he is known for portraying Indiana Jones's father Professor Dr. Henry Jones, Sr. in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles between 1992 and 1993 and Paul Bowman-MacDonald in the BBC Scotland series Monarch of the Glen from 2002 to 2005. He starred as solicitor William Heelis in the film Miss Potter (2006) and commander Nathan Walker in Apollo 18 (2011). He plays the role of Elendil in the Amazon Prime fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Simm</span> English actor, director and musician

John Ronald Simm is an English actor, director, and musician. He is best known for playing Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, the Master in Doctor Who, and DS Roy Grace in Grace. His other television credits include State of Play, The Lakes, Crime and Punishment, Exile, Prey, and Cracker. His film roles include Wonderland, Everyday, Boston Kickout, Human Traffic and 24 Hour Party People. He has twice been nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Johnson (actor)</span> British actor (1927-2015)

Richard Keith Johnson was an English stage and screen actor, writer and producer. Described by Michael Coveney as "a very 'still' actor – authoritative, calm and compelling," he was a staple performer in British films and television from the 1960s through the 2010s, often playing urbane sophisticates and authoritative characters. He had a distinguished theatrical career, notably as a cornerstone member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and was once acclaimed as "the finest romantic actor of his generation."

<i>The Homecoming</i> 1964 theater play by Harold Pinter

The Homecoming is a two-act play written in 1964 by Harold Pinter and first published in 1965. Its premières in London (1965) and New York (1967) were both directed by Sir Peter Hall. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play. Its 40th-anniversary Broadway production at the Cort Theatre was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for "Best Revival of a Play".

The Hothouse (1958/1980) is a full-length tragicomedy written by Harold Pinter in the winter of 1958 between The Birthday Party (1957) and The Caretaker (1959). After writing The Hothouse in the winter of 1958 and following the initial commercial failure of The Birthday Party, Pinter put the play aside; in 1979 he re-read it and directed its first production, at Hampstead Theatre, where it opened on 24 April 1980, transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre on 25 June 1980, and it was first published, also in 1980, by Eyre Methuen. The play received its American premiere at the Trinity Repertory Company in 1982. Pinter himself played Roote in a subsequent production staged at the Minerva Theatre, in Chichester, in 1995, later transferring to the Comedy Theatre, in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Sinden</span> English filmmaker and actor

Marcus Andrew Sinden is an English actor and film & theatre director and producer.

Victoria Station is a short play for two actors by the English playwright Harold Pinter.

Night is a dramatic sketch by the English playwright Harold Pinter, presented as one of eight short dramatic works about marriage in the program Mixed Doubles: An Entertainment on Marriage at the Comedy Theatre, London, on 9 April 1969; directed by Alexander Doré, this production included Nigel Stock as the Man and Pinter's first wife, Vivien Merchant, as the Woman (54). It replaced another sketch performed previously in the program We Who Are About To... at the Hampstead Theatre Club on 6 February 1969; each of the original eight sketches about marriage also featured two characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Hiddleston</span> English actor (born 1981)

Thomas William Hiddleston is an English actor. He gained international fame portraying Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), starting with Thor in 2011 and most recently in the Disney+ series Loki in 2021.

<i>Thriller – Live</i>

Thriller Live is a two-and-a-half-hour concert revue celebrating the music of The Jackson 5 and the solo work and life of Michael Jackson. It had already been performed in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia before opening at the Lyric Theatre, London, on 21 January 2009. The show was conceived by Jackson family friend and author Adrian Grant.

<i>Plague Over England</i>

Plague Over England is a play written by Nicholas de Jongh, based on a real-life incident when actor John Gielgud was arrested for lewd behavior in 1953; it provides an insight into the changes in the lives of gay people over the last fifty years. It received universally positive reviews when it received its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre in 2008, and subsequently transferred to the West End with an updated cast for a limited run.

Trouble in the Works (1959) is a comedy sketch by Harold Pinter.

References

  1. "Pinter's People, Theatre Royal Haymarket". Newsnight review. BBC. 2 February 2007. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
  2. 1 2 Spencer, Charles (2 February 2007). "Pinter without subtlety and timing". Online edition. London: The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 16 June 2009.
  3. "What the critics are saying about Bill Bailey and co's comedic take on the Nobel laureate's characters. It's not pretty" Damman, Guy (2 February 2007). "Reviews roundup: Pinter's People". Online edition. London: The Guardian . Retrieved 16 June 2009.
  4. "But only in the second half does the cast calm down and let the audience listen, observe, ponder … Victoria Station comes off fine — and Night pretty well too. " Nightingale, Benedict (3 February 2007). "Pinter's People". Times Online. London: The Times . Retrieved 16 June 2009.
  5. "Comedian Bill Bailey's brainchild unites a starry cast and 47 years of Pinter sketches to touching, at times hilarious, effect" Kellaway, Kate (4 February 2007). "Miracle of the mundane". Online edition. London: The Observer . Retrieved 16 June 2009.
  6. Jury, Louise (22 February 2007). "Harold Pinter: Not a word out of place". Online edition. London: The Independent. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. Retrieved 16 June 2009.