The Birthday Party

The Birthday Party has all the hallmarks of a classic Harold Pinter play, and is one of his most performed plays.  With obscure dialogue, sinister characters and nothing more than mental  and physical cruelty, Pinter's  plays are incredibly difficult to perform. This production, however, was first rate and very professional.

Congratulations go to Danny Smith for an excellently directed production that also had a group of very talented actors, which was of the highest standard of amateur acting.

The setting is a run-down seaside boarding house where a little birthday party is turned into a nightmare when two unexpected guests arrive.

Petey Boles (Phil Eardley) and Meg Boles (Vicky Howell-Jones) are the proprietors of the boarding house and live a dull and mundane life.The only occasional visitor is Lulu, a young vivacious lady played by Briony Harrison who gave a sterling performance.  Meg see life through rose coloured spectacles, wanting to please everyone, and Vicky was superb in this role.  Petey works as a deckchair attendant, a quite man, but with hidden depths to his character which we don't see until later on in Act 2.  Phil was perfect in this role.

The play focusses on Stanley Webber (George Critchley) - a retired musician who is living in the boarding house. Stanley is apparently hiding from someone or something that has happened in his past but the reason why is never revealed.  Stanley isolates himself from the world and is a very insecure man. George's portrayal of a man on the edge of a nervous breakdown with roller-coaster emotions was incredible.  A brilliant  performance.

Meg  with her maternal feelings for Stanley decides to have a birthday party for him.  On the day of the party, Nat Goldberg and his Irish side-kick Shamus McCann arrive looking for him.  Stanley is filled with fear and anxiety and his confronted by McCann (Sam  Novelli)  who is determined to stop him leaving the house by force or whatever means. McCann is a menacing and threatening character, and Sam gave a first-class  performance, and lever lost the soft lilting Irish accent. Nat Goldberg (Paul Mathers)  is an intimidating man, but charms people with his eloquent speeches.  The length of the dialogue that Paul delivered was amazing, and this was an outstanding performance.  Goldberg and McCann interrogate Stanley with ambiguous and contrived questions tormenting him onto the edge of insanity.  This continues throughout the play and the pace of dialogue between these two men was outstanding.

During the party Lulu  flirts outrageously with Goldberg, Stanley is continually tormented and attacks Lulu.  All this leads to a "broken" Stanley being taken away.  Only Petey confronts them, but with no success, but calls out  "Stan, don't let them tell you what to do".  Meg wants to know where Stanley is, but Petey never lets her know the truth - no one does. (That's Harold Pinter's style).

Every member of the cast excelled in their characterisations and it is extremely difficult to pick out any-one in particular.  The dialogue never faulted and when tension was required the silence was perfect.

The set, props, lighting, sound and costumes had all been carefully designed to fit in within the 1950's.     Congratulations to Danny, the production team, cast and everyone involved in the outstanding production.  It ticked all the boxes.

Thank you for your hospitality, and look forward to visiting you again .

 

 

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