The Birthday Party – Gaiety Theatre – Review

Continues at the Gaiety Theatre until June 4th.

Stanley has been living with Meg and her husband Petey for nearly a year now, in her run down boarding house in a seaside town. Meg fusses over Stan at the breakfast table, nagging him in a maternal fashion. He does not seem concerned with her comments, largely ignoring her. When her husband arrives home with news that he met two strangers on the beach who said they wanted to stay in the boarding house, Stanley seems gravely concerned. Are these strangers parts of Stanley’s past he is trying to avoid?

This is Harold Pinter’s second full length play and also one of his best loved. Written in 1957, it was famously panned by the critics in its opening run, closing after only eight performances. This slight almost finished Pinter as a writer but thankfully one critic, Harold Hobson, saw merit in the work and his belated rave review saved it from obscurity. This new production by London Classic Theatre has been touring Ireland in recent weeks before arriving in the Gaiety.

The set is on a raised platform at the centre of the stage, which recreates the dining room of the boarding house in some detail. It is a drab domestic space, with a cupboard and a mundane table and chairs.

This is an obscure piece of writing that strives to keep the viewer guessing about the motivation and true identity of the various characters. Some lines can seem quite straight forward but much skill is required to elevate the performance to the required level. It is a difficult play to stage and requires very careful, nuanced performances to capture the fragile and ambiguous world that Pinter sought. This production only achieves this in brief segments, with the second act being by far the most successful. The birthday party itself captures the right blend of the sinister and the bizarre, with the audience kept on unsure footing. Other portions fall slightly flat, making for an uneven night at the theatre.

Cast:

Jonathan Ashley (Goldberg),
Gareth Bennett-Ryan(Stanley)
Cheryl Kennedy (Meg)
Ged McKenna (Petey)
Declan Rodgers (McCann)
Imogen Wilde (Lulu)

Creatives:
Directed by Michael Cabot
Designed by Bek Palmer
Lighting by Andy Grange