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In 2005, Harold Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the highest honour available to any writer in
the world. In announcing the award, Horace Engdahl, Chairman of the Swedish Academy, said that Pinter was an
artist “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed
rooms”.
In 2002, Pinter was made a Companion of Honour by the Queen for services to Literature.
In 1958 Harold Pinter wrote the following:
"There are no hard distinctions between what is real and
what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false.
A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can
be both true and false."
I believe that
these assertions still make sense and do still apply
to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer
I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen
I must ask: What is true? What is false? |
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| Born 10 October 1930 in East
London, playwright, director, actor, poet and political
activist. |
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| Pinter has written twenty-nine
plays including The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The
Homecoming, and Betrayal, twenty-one screenplays including
The Servant, The Go-Between and The French Lieutenant's
Woman, and directed twenty-seven theatre productions,
including James Joyce's Exiles, David Mamet's Oleanna,
seven plays by Simon Gray and many of his own plays including
his latest, Celebration, paired with his first, The Room
at The Almeida Theatre, London in the spring of 2000. |
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| He has been awarded the Shakespeare Prize
(Hamburg), the European Prize for Literature (Vienna),
the Pirandello Prize (Palermo), the David Cohen British
Literature Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award, the Legion d’Honneur and the Moliere
D'Honneur for lifetime achievement. In 1999 he was made
a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature.
He has received honorary degrees from seventeen universities. |
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| Pinter's interest in politics is a very public one. Over the years he
has spoken out forcefully about the abuse of state power
around the world, including, recently, NATO's bombing
of Serbia. His most recent speech was given on the anniversary
of NATO'S bombing of Serbia at the Committee
for Peace in the Balkans Conference, at The Conway
Hall June 10th 2000. |
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| Dont forget to visit the online forum |
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| The Lincoln Center Festival section click
here |
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| Upcoming events for the year
2008 |
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| Pinter’s double bill, THE LOVER & THE COLLECTION is showing at the Comedy Theatre until May 3. Starring Richard Coyle, Gina Mckee, Charlie Cox and Timothy West. |
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| THE HOMECOMING under Dan Sullivan’s direction plays at the Cort Theatre on Broadway until April 13. Starring Eve Best, Raul Esparza, James Frain, Michael McKean, Ian McShane and Gareth Saxe. |
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| THE BIRTHDAY PARTY is celebrating its 50th anniversary at the Lyric Hammersmith and runs from May 8. |
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| Artistic director of the Gate Theatre, Michael Colgan is reviving Pinter’s NO MAN’S LAND with a run at the Gate in Dublin from August 21, moving to London at the end of September. Venue TBC. Cast to include Michael Gambon. |
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| A SLIGHT ACHE is to play in rep at the National Theatre under the direction of Iqbal Khan. Rehearsals begin July 21. |
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| The Pinter Review 2003/4 was recently published. You can order from The
University of Tampa Press, The University of Tampa, Tampa , Florida 33606 USA . $30 (h) $15 (s) + $5 p+p |
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