Pinter's Night: A Stroll Down Memory Lane

Abstract

AS ONE CRITIC REMINDS US in a recent article, there is a readily noticeable "change of emphasis" in the tone and techniques of the plays which Harold Pinter has written after The Homecoming (1965). And although several commentators have analyzed Pinter's better known stage works from this post—Homecoming period — Landscape (1968), Silence (1969), and Old Times (1971) —, there has been practically no attention directed towards the brief dramatic sketch entitled "Night," which was performed in England in 1969 as part of an evening of short plays under the collective title Mixed Doubles, and is published along with Landscape and Silence. Perhaps its brevity (only seven pages) has disarmed some critics. Yet it is interesting and important not only as "a coda" to the situation in Landscape and as a prelude to the dramaturgy and themes of Old Times, but primarily in and for itself as a very compressed, intense, and poetic short drama that expresses a point of view very atypical for its playwright. For this is perhaps the only time in the whole range of Pinter's dramatic output that we find portrayed a completely satisfactory and mutually satisfying relationship between a husband and wife.