[Deathwatch] Harold Pinter, playwright, 78

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter dead at 78
By Matt Falloon 
Thu Dec 25

LONDON (Reuters) ? Harold Pinter, the British playwright and Nobel
laureate famous for his brooding portrayals of domestic life and barbed
politics, has died aged 78.

His plays, including "The Caretaker" and "The Homecoming," were
regarded as among the finest of the last half century and enjoyed a
recent renaissance as modern audiences tapped into his dark studies of
the menace and chaos within everyday life.

Pinter, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 2005, was a vocal
opponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, likening U.S. President George
W. Bush's administration to the Nazis and calling ex-British Prime
Minister Tony Blair a "mass murderer."

Pinter died on Wednesday after a long battle with cancer, according to
media reports. His second wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, told the Guardian
newspaper he had been "a great."

"It was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years. He will never
be forgotten," she said.

Pinter's work influenced a generation of British dramatists, defined
the "kitchen sink" drama and introduced a new word to the English
language. "Pinteresque" describes painfully taut silences peppered with
threats or half-stated meanings.

Critics dubbed Pinter's chilling masterpieces "the theater of
insecurity." The son of a working-class Jewish tailor gave little help
to audiences struggling to unravel his plays.

"There are no hard distinctions between what is real and unreal," he
said.

MARITAL SCANDAL

>From 1958 to 1978 a flurry of Pinter plays changed the face of British
theater. Then silence fell for 15 years until the London production of
his next full-length play, "Moonlight."

He became the subject of marital scandal in 1980 when his actress wife
Vivien Merchant divorced him because of his affair with author Lady
Fraser.

Pinter married Fraser later that year. Merchant, star of many of
Pinter's plays, died in 1982, a victim of alcoholism.

In later life Pinter became almost as well known for his political
activism as for his art, campaigning for human rights and nuclear
disarmament and speaking out against Western foreign policy.

"The crimes of the U.S. throughout the world have been systematic,
constant, clinical, remorseless and fully documented but nobody talks
about them," he said.

Pinter also carved out a distinguished career as a screenwriter with
hits such as "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "The Servant."

But, back in 1958, Pinter's first full-length play -- "The Birthday
Party" -- nearly became his last.

Critics derided him, the play folded after a week and the budding
playwright contemplated quitting.

Influential critic Harold Hobson came to the rescue, saying: "Mr
Pinter, on the evidence of this work, possesses the most original,
disturbing and arresting theatrical talent in London."

Less than two years later, Pinter's second play, "The Caretaker,"
opened in London's West End and established his reputation as a major
dramatist. 

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary