Review

TITLE: The Birthday Party, Huddersfield Thespians

VENUE: Syngenta Cellar, Lawrence Batley Theatre, HuddersfieldBY: William Marshall

WHATEVER considerations led to this production of Pinter’s late 1950s debut play being performed in the cellar rather than the main house of the LBT, it was an inspired idea in dramatic terms.

The play is famous for its black comedy and sense of menace of the sort that would come to be defined as Pinteresque, and in the claustrophobia of the Syngenta Cellar, with the audience cheek-by-jowl with the actors, this is delivered in concentrated form.

Most critics hated The Birthday Party when it was first staged, but it would probably prove to be as influential as Look Back in Anger. And all of Harold Pinter’s trademarks are evident from the off, including those famous pauses and poetic banality of dialogue.

The plot revolves around the charmless Stanley, holed up in a seedy seaside lodging house, presided over by a delusional, almost child-like landlady. Two strange men come to stay and Stanley’s descent into despair begins. And it is what Pinter does not provide in the way of narrative explanation that gives the play its nightmarish quality. Stanley’s plight becomes a metaphor for all of our fears.

Pauses or not, The Birthday Party is a wordy playŠ and the cast of Alan Jones, Christine Davies, Steve Marsden, Susan Gledhill, Colin Wiseley and Keith Royston all perform excellently in Lawrence Barker’s accomplished production.Š

As landlady Meg, Christine Davies captures the faded glamour, mental disintegration and painful self-delusion of the character. Steve Marsden is as accomplished as ever in the central role of Stanley, who is an unattractive man but his total collapse is pitiful all the same and acted with power.

The element of menace is amply provided by the two, smartly-suited visitors. The simple explanation is that they are underworld enforcers, but there are other possibilities. Keith Royston is ramrod-backed and capable of sudden fierce intimidation, as the strange Irishman McCann; and, in what was perhaps the most arresting performance for me, Colin Wiseley is all charm, plausibility and – that word again – menace as Goldberg. But even the two hard men in The Birthday Party are capable of self-doubt and self-delusion.

The Birthday Party continues until Saturday, when there is also a matinee.