THE RADICALS & AVANT-GARDE 1920–1970
In a Harold Pinter play, what isn’t said often matters more than what is. A pause can last an eternity; a simple phrase like “Come in” can carry a threat. Pinter’s dramatic world is one of everyday banality pierced by sudden menace. He had a word for the peculiar blend of humor and dread in his early plays: “comedy of menace.” Critics noticed that while you might chuckle at two characters chatting about the weather, you also felt an undefinable tension – as if at any moment, violence might erupt. It’s the theatrical equivalent of seeing a shadow move behind a pleasant conversation.
Pinter’s style is unmistakable. He writes dialogue that mimics how people actually speak: fragmented, repetitive, full of understatement and small talk. His characters say things like “Not much happening today” when clearly something enormous is looming. They dodge direct answers. And famously, they fall into silences – those “Pinter pauses” that actors and directors find both daunting and thrilling . In those silences, the audience’s imagination rushes in to fill the gap. Is the character afraid? Scheming? On the brink of attack? Pinter once described his dialogue as a way to expose the layers beneath speech: “the speech we hear is an indication of that which we don’t hear.” And indeed his plays are noted for their use of “reticence—and even silence—to convey the substance of a character’s thought, which often lies several layers beneath…and contradicts his speech.” . This makes watching Pinter a bit like being a detective – you’re always picking up clues, sensing the subtext roiling under the mundane words.
