Before you go see “The Birthday Party” at Steppenwolf, you should assess how you feel about Nobel-Prize winning writer Harold Pinter.
Not sure, you say. Here’s a short quiz that might help:
- Do you prefer plays with a narrative arc that you can generally follow?
- Are characters with discernable motivations, who act according to those motivations, important for your enjoyment?
- Do you like dialogue that sounds plausibly like it might come out of an actual person’s mouth?
Sadly, if you answered affirmatively to those questions, you are probably not going to be a Pinter devotee. My advice is to stop reading this review, and instead go see “Motherf**ker with a Hat,” “Other Desert Cities” or “Book of Mormon.” For the intrepid theatergoer who is comfortable with non-narrative format, who can understand the deeper meaning in a toy drum and who isn’t interested in witty repartee, by all means, get thee to “The Birthday Party.”
The premise is that at a small boarding house the one and only guest, whose name is Stanley, and the husband and wife who run the home are thrown into a tizzy by two menacing guests who arrive for no obvious reason. Although it’s not Stanley’s birthday, they throw a birthday party for him anyway, and in the morning, Stanley is a comatose version of his usual nervous self and he leaves with the men.
Beyond the fact that I didn’t understand who the men were or what they symbolized—and full confession, I am the type of theatergoer who answers an enthusiastic “yes” to each of the above questions—I despised Pinter’s female characters. Meg, the woman who owns the boarding house, makes little sense. Everything she says is dialogue one would expect from a person who had suffered substantial brain damage. The actress, Moira Harris, does her best, but what can you do when your character’s only concerns are cornflakes and things being “nice?” The other female character, a beautiful young woman played by Sophia Sinise, also dithers about nothing, even after being sexually assaulted by another character. As a feminist who likes strong and intelligent women, I hated this play’s depiction of women.
So who is a Harold Pinter fan? John Malkovich. He was in the audience at the performance I attended, and he is directing an upcoming tribute at Steppenwolf, “A Celebration of Harold Pinter,” on February 10. Think of the dark, brooding characters that Malkovich typically plays, and you’ve got an answer as to who might like this play.
“The Birthday Party” runs at Steppenwolf Theatre through April 28. For tickets, visit Steppenwolf.org.
