Pinter's People

Genre: Comedy
Opened 1 Feb 2007
Directed: Sean Foley
Produced: Mick Perrin for Just For Laughs Live
Cast: Bill Bailey, Kevin Eldon, Geraldine McNulty, Sally Phillips
Synopsis: This production is a celebration of HAROLD PINTER who will celebrate his 76th birthday this year (2007). It is a presentation of thirteen sketches, woven together under the banner 'PINTER'S PEOPLE', a title given to the company by the playwright for this unique production. Many regard HAROLD PINTER as Britain's greatest living playwright. He is the undisputed master of absurdist drama and his plays are noted for their use of silence, understatement, and cryptic small talk. Equally recognizable are the 'Pinteresque' themes - nameless menace, erotic fantasy, obsession and jealousy, family hatred and mental disturbance. The thirteen sketches include: Trouble In The Works, The Black And White, Special Offer, That's Your Trouble, Request Stop, Night,T he New World Order, Tess, Victoria Station, That's All, Last To Go, Precisely, Press Conference.

What the critics had to say.....
NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "The actors frequently play at the top of their exaggerated voices and show off the bottom of their talents. Pinter's People are interfered with rather than brought to life." PAUL TAYLOR for THE INDEPENDENT says, "This is not an enjoyable evening and indeed there are sequences where it is barely endurable, but it is an instructive one...The performers opt for crude clowning instead of finding the truth of the situation from which the comedy, the poetry and the pathos spring." MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "If we know one thing about Pinter, it is that he is a consummate verbal craftsman. Here, Pinter's people have been turned into lurching grotesques and the result does a grave disservice both to the writer and comic acting." CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "One of the most punishingly unfunny evenings I have ever endured in a theatre." BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE for THE TIMES says, "Last night I was sickened by some of the coarsest performances I have ever seen in a London playhouse."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Guardian
The Independent
Daily Telegraph
The Times