Pinter Context

Question 1

WA Darlington, 1957, on Meg

Answer 1

Thwarted maternity

Question 2

Well Made Play

Answer 2

Resolved ending, unambiguous

Question 3

Black and Tans

Answer 3

Used by Churchill to fight the IRA, known for civilian brutality

Question 4

Pinter as Contientious Objector

Answer 4

didn’t want to fight under authority

Question 5

The Room, Pinter

Answer 5

name changes between Rose to ‘Sal’

Question 6

Theatre of the Absurd

Answer 6

Coined by Martin Esslin, questioned meaning, existence etc

Question 7

Peter Zadek, contemporary director

Answer 7

mix of Agatha Christie and Kafka

Question 8

Jack Benny

Answer 8

American comedian whom Pinter cites as the inspiration behind the long pauses

Question 9

Pinter about ambiguity

Answer 9

If a play…answers its own questions, the life goes out of the play[…] because our lives are full of ambiguity

Question 10

Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, 1953

Answer 10

Cited as one of Pinter’s main influences, prime example of absurdism, Pinter liked the use of wordplay and realist interactions between the social classes

Question 11

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound, 1968

Answer 11

Features an argument about genre in the audience of a play, breaking the fourth wall example

Question 12

Pinter on blackouts

Answer 12

highly sexual

Question 13

Kitchen Sink Dramas

Answer 13

such as Taste of Honey, Shelagh Delaney (1958), focused on working class

Question 14

The Dumb Waiter, Pinter

Answer 14

talks about ‘the job’; uses newspapers ‘it’s down here in black and white’; metatheatrical element ‘it’s a figure or speech’;