SOURCE: Copeland, Roger. “A Room of His Own.” American Theatre 18, no. 8 (October 2001): 23-6, 130-33.

In the following essay, Copeland asserts that the time has come for a major reevaluation of Pinter's career and of his legacy to British theater.

The essential ingredients rarely change: A room, a safe enclosed space of some sort. Characters who feel not only secure, but “at home” in that space. An unexpected visitor whose very presence evokes a sense of dread, of inexplicable threat—a fear that seems at first, unfounded, even paranoid. Then … almost imperceptibly, an “invasion” begins; and the boundaries between inside/outside, familiar/unfamiliar, safe/unsafe, self/other begin to blur.

Eventually, territory changes hands and roles are reversed. The battlefield may be domestic, but the tactical maneuvers are as complicated as any military scenario ever studied at West Point. And no matter how violent or unsettling the outcome, language...