UK: playwright Harold Pinter’s 75th birthday

From the Google cache of Dear Kitty Modblog.

10/2/05 at 8:24AM

Mood: Looking Playing: Happy birthday to you

On 10 October, British playwright Harold Pinter will have his 75th birthday.

Then, his new play Voices will have its first airing on the BBC’s culture and classical music station Radio 3.

From The Independent:

Voices will undoubtedly be one of the last dramatic works Pinter will complete.

He was diagnosed with throat cancer three years ago and has said he does not expect to write another full play.

He said recently: “I think I’ve come to the end of my play-writing life.

One never knows, but I have written 29 damn plays, long and short, and I think that’s probably about it.”

He has concentrated mainly on poetry in the past few years.

The BBC has billed the production as “the language of torturers and the tortured … set to a haunting radiophonic score”.

It features short, fractured sections of speech from various characters as well as snatches of Arabic music and singing.

It is thought to have been partly inspired by Pinter‘s reaction to events in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

Also from the Google cache, 10/13/05:

On 10 October, British playwright and poet Harold Pinter had his 75th birthday.

Today, it became known he won the literature Nobel price for 2005.

Harold Pinter is not only a prominent literary figure, but also a strong opponent of warmongering politicians like George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

Harold Pinter is a deserved winner of this price; inaugurated by the paradoxical Alfred Nobel; a capitalist making profits from wars, but also a sort of pacifist and anti capitalist playwright.

Congratulations, and all best wishes to Harold Pinter!