Context

Question 1

First run of TBP

Answer 1

1958 - taken off after only one week

Question 2

Contemporary reviews were filled with…

Answer 2

‘a baffled anger at Pinter’s failure to explain himself’ (Michael Billington)

Question 3

Which character has Pinter played on stage and in film?

Answer 3

Goldberg

Question 4

The Room

Answer 4

1957
Explores notions of privacy being invaded and threats that ensue
The play exists within an oppressive architectural structure, much like in TBP, during which the set remains static
Use of claustrophobic stage spaces to reflect the entrapment of the characters

Question 5

The Dumb Waiter

Answer 5

1960
Often linked with TBP due to the similar shift from comedy to menace or absurdist theatre to horror
Ends at the moment of climax – with ‘A long silence’ – ending holds no meaning or answers

Question 6

The Dumb Waiter

Answer 6

1960
Often linked with TBP due to the similar shift from comedy to menace or absurdist theatre to horror
Ends at the moment of climax – with ‘A long silence’ – ending holds no meaning or answers

Question 7

Pinter’s use of newspapers

Answer 7

Idea of newspapers and magazines as being a connection to society
Meg in TBP - form of entertainment
McCann in TBP - represents the destruction of society
Ben in The Dumb Waiter - protective over his newspaper
Rose in The Room - reads magazines

Question 8

Emergence of kitchen sink drama

Answer 8

In 50s and 60s

Disillusionment of young people in the post-war war

Question 9

Kafka

Answer 9

‘The Trial’ (1925) - both involve men who are arrested on their birthday day by two individuals who represents the shadowy force of the establishment

Question 10

How old was Pinter when he read ‘The Trial’?

Answer 10

18

Question 11

Impact of WWII

Answer 11

Raised awareness and understanding of worldwide horror (hydrogen bombs and concentration camps)
Resulted in around 60 million deaths

Question 12

Malcolm Bradbury and post-modernism

Answer 12

‘existential anguish of the early post-war world’

Question 13

Existentialism

Answer 13

French novelist and dramatist Albert Camus – ‘in a universe suddenly deprived of illusions and of light, man feels a stranger’

Meaningless and purposeless nature of existence

Question 14

‘Dead centre’

Answer 14

The lack of meaning and understanding seems to have no purpose other than to represent that existentialist ‘dead centre’ that humanity had found itself in following WWII

Question 15

Creation of the Welfare State

Answer 15

1945 - threw up questions regarding the duty of society to protect the vulnerable

Question 16

Impact of the Cold War

Answer 16

TBP as a post-nuclear play – no physical violence is seen but there is an ever-present sense of anxiety

Question 17

Absurdism

Answer 17

Prominent theatrical movement which rejected conventional dramatic structures and aw the world from an existentialist perspective

Question 18

Waiting for Godot

Answer 18

By Samuel Beckett
First premiered in London in 1955
Presented all human action as pointless, uses similar techniques of repetition and sparse dialogue

Question 19

Modernism/breakdown of society

Answer 19

Breakdown of the grand structures – church numbers decreasing, rising interest in psychology and the individual

Question 20

Deconstructive Theory

Answer 20

A critique of the relationship between text and meaning
Links with the unreliability of language and the failures to communicate in the play – Pinter offers no guide towards objective truth because there is no truth to be directed towards

Question 21

TBP as a representation of Pinter’s own political and social anxiety

Answer 21

Fear as a conscientious objector during WWII regarding ‘two people knocking at the door’ which he claimed had become ‘more and more actual in our lives’

Question 22

Einstein and time

Answer 22

Idea that all time is eternally present (past and future are simultaneously existing)

Pre-occupation with time and memory in TBP as a consequence of scientific inquiry and interest in time travel

Question 23

Henri Bergson

Answer 23

Philosopher who influenced the modernist movement

Stated that the human experience of time was subjective and, in some cases, wildly different to ‘scientific time’

Question 24

Symbolism of Stanley’s glasses

Answer 24

McCann - ‘I’ll take your glasses’
A nod, perhaps, to the horrifying games played in William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ (1954) in which Piggy’s glasses are broken

Question 25

Greek tragedy

Answer 25

Deaths and violence took place off stage - much like the audience assumes happens in TBP (torture session between the party and the morning in Act III)

Question 26

Meg and gender roles

Answer 26

Seems unaffected by the post WWII reassignment of gender roles - instead tried to weaponise conventional ideas of femininity in an attempt to control the other characters

She is almost a caricature of a domesticated woman - slavishly subscribes to the patriarchy throughout the play

Question 27

McCann’s questions during the interrogation are specific and sinister, chiming with…

Answer 27

Contemporary Cold War fears regarding atomic bombs and authoritative states

Question 28

Culture of revisionism and denial

Answer 28

Events in the public consciousness which are too terrible to discuss - Holocaust and atomic bombs - links to how the characters revise and weaponise their own pasts