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If you go to see the latest interpretation of Harold Pinter’s play, The Birthday Party, plan to spend a few hours afterwards mulling over exactly what might have happened.

The intriguing and conversation-inspiring play may be 50 years old but it has been given a fresh new treatment by The University of Western Australia’s Graduate Dramatic Society.

Walk into the Dolphin Theatre from October 26 at 8pm and you’ll see cast-members on an empty stage donning their costumes. They will be accompanied by a musical prelude and, as the drama unfolds, by music specially written for this production by Chris Male.

“The Birthday Party goes from dark to darker but it is also full of black humour,” director Peter Clark said. “The audience is left wondering what happens and almost everyone has a different interpretation of it.

“It’s a classic of absurdist theatre and one of the most important of Pinter’s works. I remember that when I first performed in it in 1993 it was really exciting to be part of a play that generated so much thought and discussion.

“There was such a buzz around the theatre, particularly after the performance when the audience had so many ideas and interpretations.

“It’s a play of opposites – an in-your-face drama without being in-your-face. It’s riveting, yet nothing happens. And the passage of time in a sleepy seaside guesthouse contains madness and emotional breakdowns yet leaves you feeling like you’ve just chatted with a next-door neighbour,” Peter Clark said.

Phil MacKenzie of Gosnells plays Petey, the owner of the guesthouse, with Jacqui Warner of Swan View as his wife, Meg. Their lodger, Stanely, whose birthday it may or may not be, is played by Martin Lindsay of Leederville.

Nyree Hughes of Guildford is cast as Lulu the neighbour of Petey and Meg, with the experienced ‘heavy’, Goldberg, played by Eddie Stowers of St James. David Gregory of Claremont is his kind-hearted side-kick, McCann.

Bookings can be made through BOCS www.bocsticketing.com.au or phone 1800 193 300.

Media references

Dr Martin Forsey (Production Manager – Photographer) 61 8 6488 3880
0400 757 123

Simone Hewett / Sally-Ann Jones 61 8 6488 7977
(UWA Public Affairs) 0420 790 097 / 0420 790 098