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''The Birthday Party'' (1957) is the second full-length play by Harold Pinter and one of Pinter's best-known and most-frequently performed plays. After its hostile London reception almost ended Pinter's playwriting career, it went on to be considered a classic.〔Michael Billington, ("Fighting Talk" ), ''The Guardian'', ''guardian.co.uk'', 3 May 2008, Web, 10 June 2008: "This month () The Birthday Party returns to the same theatre where it opened exactly 50 years ago. Slated by the critics, it nearly ended Harold Pinter's career. So how did it go on to become such a classic, asks Michael Billington."〕 Produced by Michael Codron and David Hall, the play had its world première at the Arts Theatre, in Cambridge, England, on 28 April 1958, where the play was "warmly received" on its pre-London tour, in Oxford and Wolverhampton, where it also met with a "positive reception" as "the most enthralling experience the Grand Theatre has given us in many months."〔〔("The Birthday Party – Premiere" ). Cambridge Arts Theatre, Cambridge, England, 28 April 1958, in "Plays", ''HaroldPinter.org'', Harold Pinter, 2000–2003, Web, 15 May 2008. (Features texts of selected reviews, including Harold Hobson's "The Screw Turns Again".)〕〔Qtd. in Jamie Andrews, ("It Was Fifty Years Ago Today (Almost)" ), ''Harold Pinter Archive Blog'', British Library, 12 May 2008, Web, 20 May 2008; Andrews is citing a contemporaneous review from May 1958 and context from a letter by Sean Day-Lewis, former drama critic of the ''Express and Star'' and the ''Birmingham Evening Post'', published in May 2008. Cf. Sean Day-Lewis, ("Birthday Party Bafflement" ), ''Guardian'', Letters, Guardian Media Group, 20 May 2008, Web, 20 May 2008.〕 On 19 May 1958, the production moved to the Lyric Opera House, Hammersmith (now the Lyric Hammersmith),〔("About the Lyric: History" ), ''Lyric Hammersmith'', n.d., Web, 9 May 2008.〕 for its début in London, where it was a commercial and mostly critical failure, instigating "bewildered hysteria" and closing after only eight performances.〔〔〔Matthew Hemley, ("50th Anniversary Staging of The Birthday Party to Star Hancock" ), ''The Stage'', The Stage, 8 April 2008, Web, 9 May 2008.〕 The weekend after it had already closed, Harold Hobson's belated rave review, "The Screw Turns Again", appeared in ''The Sunday Times'',〔Harold Hobson, "The Screw Turns Again", ''The Sunday Times'' 25 May 1958: 11, rpt. in ("The Birthday Party – Premiere" ), ''haroldpinter.org'', Harold Pinter, 2000–2003, Web, 15 May 2008.〕 rescuing its critical reputation and enabling it to become one of the classics of the modern stage.〔〔〔(''The Birthday Party'' ). American Repertory Theater (ART), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 6–27 March 2004, ''American Repertory Theater, 2004, Web, 9 May 2008. (Provides useful resources about the playwright and the play.)〕〔("The Birthday Party" ), ''Socialist Worker'', Socialist Worker, 10 May 2008, Web, 9 May 2008: "(Birthday Party'' ) centres around Stanley Webber, a mysterious man who claims to be a piano player. ... He is visited in the boarding house he now lives in by two sinister characters, Goldberg and McCann, who are looking for a "certain person". ... A birthday party for Stanley turns into a terrible experience. ... The play received poor reviews when it first opened, but today The Birthday Party is rightly recognised as a classic."〕 The Lyric celebrated the play's 50th anniversary with a revival, directed by artistic director David Farr, and related events from 8 to 24 May 2008, including a gala performance and reception hosted by Harold Pinter on 19 May 2008, exactly fifty years after its London première.〔〔〔''(The Birthday Party )'', Lyric Hammersmith, 8–24 May 2008, Web, 9 May 2008.〕〔Theo Bosanquet, ("Review Round-up: Birthday Cheers for Pinter ''Party''" ), ''What's on Stage'', whatsonstage.com, 14 May 2008, Web, 15 May 2008.〕 ==Summary== ''The Birthday Party'' is about Stanley Webber, an erstwhile piano player in his 30s, who lives in a rundown boarding house, run by Meg and Petey Boles, in an English seaside town, "probably on the south coast, not too far from London".〔''Harold Pinter'', Faber Critical Guides (London: Faber and Faber, 2000) 57: The setting evokes "Basingstoke and Maidenhead, southern towns ... and ... London – in both Goldberg and Stanley's reminiscences."〕〔(Audio interview with Harold Pinter ), conducted by Rebecca Jones, ''BBC Radio 4'', bbc.co.uk/today, 12 May 2008, Web, 14 May 2008.〕 Two sinister strangers, Goldberg and McCann, who arrive supposedly on his birthday and who appear to have come looking for him, turn Stanley's apparently innocuous birthday party organised by Meg into a nightmare.〔〔''(The Birthday Party )'' synopsis, in ''Samuel French Basic Catalog'', rpt. in ''samuelfrench.com'' ("Little Theatre"), n.d., Web, 10 May 2008.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Birthday Party (play)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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