The Birthday Party Criticism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 60 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Birthday Party.
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The Birthday Party Criticism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 60 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Birthday Party.
This section contains 771 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Birthday Party Study Guide

The nearly unanimous negative reviews that assaulted the 1958 London premier of Pinter's The Birthday Party baffled the young playwright but never dampened his spirits. Those early reviewers, with the exception of Harold Hobson, found Pinter's play unfunny, obscure, and derivative. In the Evening Standard, Milton Shulman, scoffed that the work would "be best enjoyed by those who believe that obscurity is its own reward" and further complained that the play was not very funny, in part because "the fun to be derived out of the futility of language" was becoming a "cliche of its own." Meanwhile, M. M. W., the reviewer in the Manchester Guardian, wrote that Pinter simply obfuscated both character and action with "non-sequiturs, half-gibberish, and lunatic ravings," and suggested that the playwright might do much better if he would forget "Beckett, Ionesco, and Simpson." For the anonymous reviewer in the Times, the play...

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This section contains 771 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy The Birthday Party Study Guide
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The Birthday Party from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.