Party Time

by Harold Pinter

Party Time had 2 performances over 17 years ago (between the 5th of October 2006 and the 20th of October 2006) at Riverside Arts Centre

Any production of a Pinter play is a journey of exploration. Little in the way of obvious action takes place but much is seething beneath the surface waiting to be explored.

This play focuses on the superficial hedonism of a fashionable party at Gavin's elegant London home whilst on the streets a demonstration appears to be raging. Inside there is a cloistered, fragile safety whilst outside a noisy revolution.

The play can be seen as a parable for a vacuum sealed privileged world, cut off from the realities of life. Pinter seems to be saying that privilege co-exists with investment in state power and control. People's lives are more and more governed by a materialism in which it is uncool to get het up about injustice and corruption.

Gavin is a very powerful, high ranking government official, responsible for the round up of dissidence that is going on in the streets outside, which makes access to his party difficult for his super rich guests.

The majority are members of an exclusive, elegant new health club which they over-enthusiastically praise. They happily gossip about their sexual affairs and the rapacious activities of a nymphomaniac slut and brag about their summer island retreats and yachts.

Disrupting the atmosphere of smug self-satisfied harmony is the running battle between Essex man bruiser Terry, employed to carry out his social superior's dirty work and his trophy-wife, Dusty, who nags him about the fate of her missing brother, Jimmy.

At the end of the play, all becomes clear as a very bright light reveals Jimmy as the victim of State oppression and torture to which the narcissist party-goers have turned the blindest of eyes.

Pinter offers us a deadly account of our moral myopias; he takes the piss out of a wealthy elite, totally indifferent to decisions taken in their name. He also suggests that underneath the drawing room opulence and elegance private relationships echo public brutality.

For a successful production of the play it is vital to establish the edgy safety of the party and the well-heeled self satisfied, smug members of the club and the cries and pain of the outside unseen forces.

The actors must find the vital Pinter style and the essential rhythms of the dialogue and the unspoken sub-text beneath the superficial, mannered delivery. They rhythm of the dialogue, the silences, the smooth sophisticated manners, the fashionable dress and hair styles contrast with the oppression and torture and abuse of prisoners which is prevalent outside. Vocally and visually the actors portraying the smart, sophisticated party-goers are in direct contrast to Jimmy's frail, tortured form.

The play offers actors a chance to play some excellent roles, to dress elegantly and to handle some stunning dialogue and subtext.

The setting should be opulent and elegant and the lighting and sound atmospheric, reflecting the repression, abuse and sinister secrets operating beyond a half-open door.

Pinter has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his plays and his deep concern with politics. He is essentially a theatre animal as well as an impassioned citizen.

He offers us a play which is a deadly assault on a moral myopia and the sins of State oppression and torture.

Pinter has said his plays are all about the weasel under the cocktail cabinet which Party Time epitomises.

Original

Jimmy - Nick Lund

Young, bruised and battered victim of brutal state oppression. Requires intense concentration to go into a bleak, imaginative space and occupy it totally for two and a half minutes. He has tremendous physical stillness – a washed out feeling of deadness having been surrounded by screaming and torture all day long. He is living the pain internally and living the horror perpetually. His final speech is a slow, beautiful poem which ends the play in a powerful, haunting image.

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Gavin - Wally Walters

The urbane host, a powerful high ranking government official, responsible for the round up going on outside his fashionable pad. Elegant, suave, smooth, charming right wing articulate politician. The superficial glaze of urban contentment hides a powerful, violent, ruthless streak that is masterminding the round up outside.

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Terry - Mark Humble

Ex-bruiser employed to carry out Gavin’s more unpleasant tasks. A brutal, battling Essex man with a veneer of pseudo-sophistication which covers a very unpleasant character. He bullies his wife, using unpleasant sexual references and has unequal battles of power with Gavin and his wife.

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Dusty - Nancy Lund

Terry’s trophy wife. Young, physically attractive “footballer’s wife” type Essex girl. Out of fear for the safety of her dissident brother, Jimmy, she is anxious to please the odious Terry. Can be defiant and sexually manipulative with her violent husband.

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Douglas - Bill Newman

Something big in the City, a slick chauvinist and moneyed pretentious prat. Patronising his wife, he has a long speech extolling the virtues of island life. Carries some of the dark ironic humour of the play with his stuffed-shirt image and male chauvinism.

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Liz - Linda Russell

Drink has its effect on Douglas’s dutiful sex-starved wife and housebound mother of twins. She is searching for excitement and sexual thrills and gossips about a dalliance with a toy-boy which brings humour to the play.

Original

Charlotte - Frankie Godliman

Enigmatic and beautiful, her husband has been killed by the regime and her ex-lover Fred is implicated. A grieving widow whose husband was a victim of State oppression and torture. The actress needs to impart the formal staccato almost Cowardesque dialogue with a wealth of hidden emotion. Nothing is directly stated but the audience needs to be able to infer much in the terrifying resonance of her loaded exchanges with Fred.

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Dame Melissa - Jane Walters

An ageing, prominent survivor from an ancient regime. Expounds the moral values of the exclusive “club” which is inspired by a set of moral values which are unshakably fundamental and constant. She is very much the “grand dame” who gives vital information to other guests in her political speech. Looks and sounds very regal with a sanctimonious-ness appropriate for the high flown moral values that she espouses.

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Fred - Keith Bollands

Dark, satanic, mysterious and gloomy in manner and appearance. A leading figure of the right wing policies of the regime who are ruthlessly repressing the revolution in the streets. He is implicated in Charlotte’s husband’s murder and is her ex-lover. The actor will be required to find the buried emotion hidden beneath the sparse dialogue and his brooding exterior.

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Waitress - Anne Nunn

A non speaking role but of vital importance to the smooth transition between scenes.

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Director - Judith Dolley

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Set Design and Construction - John Godliman

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Stage Manager - Clare Pinnock

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Lighting - Bill Payne

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Sound - Ian Santry

Best Backstage Management Woking Drama Festival - 2006
Best use of Sound Ian Santry Woking Drama Festival - 2006