An exploration of Harold Pinter's work in the theatre – through interviews with the man himself and with actors and directors who worked with him.Eight actors and directors who worked with Pinter in the theatre talk candidly about what it's like to appear in a Pinter play, to direct a Pinter play, to be directed by Pinter, to work alongside Pinter as an actor.The voices belong to directors Katie Mitchell and Sam Mendes, and to actors Barry Foster, Susan Engel, Roger Lloyd Pack, Roger Davidson, Douglas Hodge and Harry Burton. Before that come six interviews with Pinter himself, ranging from the earliest ever in 1960, when Pinter was 29, through the box-office successes of the seventies and the political plays of the eighties up to an extensive 1996 interview surveying the whole gamut of his work.Also included is an interview with Peter Hall, who directed the premieres of several of Pinter's best-known plays including The Homecoming and Old Times.
Ian Smith is a critic, writer and musician. He has held posts as a lecturer in modern and Renaissance literature at the Universities of Oxford, London, Warwick and Boston. He was a long-term friend of Harold Pinter (and they played in the same cricket team).
Foreword by Harold Pinter; Introduction; Pinter on Pinter; Harry Thompson, New Theatre Magazine, II.2, January 1961; Lawrence M. Bensky, The Paris Review, 1966; Miriam Gross, The Observer, 5 October 1980; Anna Ford, Omnibus/The Listener, 27 October 1988; Mireia Aragay and Ramon Simo, Universitat de Barcelona, Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, 6 December 1996; Voices from the Past; Mick Goldstein's letter to Michael Billington, 1984; Henry Woolf's article in The Guardian, 2002. Actors and Directors; Peter Hall interviewed by Catherine Itzin and Simon Trussler, Theatre Quarterly, No. 16, 1974; Barry Foster; Susan Engel; Roger Lloyd Pack; Roger Davidson; Katie Mitchell; Douglas Hodge; Harry Burton; Sam Mendes; Acknowledgements.
'Ian Smith paints a detailed picture of one of theatre's leading men in his collection of interviews, reviews and essays... a fascinating insight'