Contextualising the play - A Night Out by Harold Pinter

Stephan Seiler

Contextualising the play

The Playwright (Harold Pinter)

Harold Pinter was born in the working-class neighbourhood of East London's Hackney in 1930, the son of a Jewish tailor. He evacuated to Cornwall, England, at the outbreak of World War II in 1939, and returned to London when he was 14.

He began acting in plays at his grammar school, and later received a grant to study at London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He left the school after two years, and spent most of the 1950s writing poetry and acting in small theatre productions.
In 1957, he wrote his first play, The Room. His first produced play; The Birthday Party came a year later. The reception was unfavourable, it closed within a week, but Pinter's next full-length play, The Caretaker (1960), was more successful.
The Dumb Waiter also staged in 1960, helped Pinter become more well known. He frequently directed, and sometimes acted in his own work in the 1960s and 1970s. This work was radio, television, and film based.

Pinter often acted in “who done its?” So this was a major influence in his work to do with gangsters and that lifestyle. He acted for Television drama: -

A Night Out by Harold Pinter, ABC TV Armchair Theatre, 24 April 1960
Directed by Philip Saville
(Assheton Gorton – Designer.) Seeley - David Baron [Harold Pinter]
He also acted in films,
The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1964.) Another cameo appearance for Pinter in this, his first collaboration as screenplay writer with the director Joseph Losey. He played the role of a Society Man in a brief scene.

The Context of inherent of the play

The play was written in the 1950s but staged in the 1960s. Personally, I would stage it in 1950s Britain. This is because there is so much related to the play socially (e.g. Rock and pop music) culturally (The Crazy Gang) and historically (the Cold War).

Content of play

The main content of the play is two men, who have jobs as hit men and they are in a basement waiting for their next assignment. As they wait, themes such as gangsters and their lifestyles, relationships between colleagues and tension ...

The Context of inherent of the play

The play was written in the 1950s but staged in the 1960s. Personally, I would stage it in 1950s Britain. This is because there is so much related to the play socially (e.g. Rock and pop music) culturally (The Crazy Gang) and historically (the Cold War).

Content of play

The main content of the play is two men, who have jobs as hit men and they are in a basement waiting for their next assignment. As they wait, themes such as gangsters and their lifestyles, relationships between colleagues and tension are explored. These are very relevant to the period of the play because at the time (1950s) gangsters were around a lot. The basement is in Birmingham, “The second biggest city in Great Britain.” I would make it a basement of a café used by the locals in a quiet part of town. The time of day would be unknown because there would be no windows, to make it look even more like a bunker.

The world in which the play was performed

Personally, I would set the play at the same time the play was written, 1957. At that time, there were so many different things going on which influenced Pinter. Mainly, the plays he acted in such as Agatha Christie, comedies and a variety of other things. The main theme, for me personally, is gangsters and their lifestyles.

The Krays

One pair of gangsters that are very similar to Ben and Gus is the Kray brothers.

The East End of London in the post-war era was a rough place to live in, and gangs of boys roamed the street without fear. It was not unusual for weapons to be carried, and the Krays soon earned the violent reputations that have endured to this day. Like Ben and Gus. They were both equipped with revolvers each, to do their jobs and to protect themselves.
The twins ran protection rackets in the local area until 1960 when they branched out and opened a gambling club in Knightsbridge. Ben and Gus are staying in a basement, but upstairs is an old café that could have been used for gangster, ‘pay – protection’ purpose.
Also, Ronnie Kray was homosexual. One could set Gus as being homosexual, because he is not as rough and ‘manly’ as Ben.

50 – 60s

Back in 1959 the then Tory Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, went into an election with the slogan that the British people “had never had it so good as under the Conservatives.” Economic growth was over 3% a year, wages were rising, house prices were firm and, above all, everybody was in work - and all this with low inflation. Ben and Gus were also in work. It wasn’t the prettiest of work, but it made money.

Ben would be annoyed with the slogan “Never had it so good” because for him, life was just about his job and how to cope with his ‘junior partner’ Gus.

Cultural

The Crazy Gang was a collection of zany comedians: three double acts. The most known were Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen. Flanagan in particular being adored by the British public. The acts were a comedy phenomenon, packing theatres and appearing in a number of films.

Their antics combined verbal gymnastics with farce and elaborate physical comedy, and it all seemed totally unstructured - lunatic stream-of-consciousness complemented by custard pies.
Flanagan and Alan are quite alike with Ben and Gus, looking at them from a comedic angle. As one character is always played as the smarter character or a character with more authority.

Rock and Pop music was a huge influence on the 1950s. Not only the music, but also the image that came with it. In my opinion, Ben would have slicked back hair, influenced by Elvis Presley, and Gus, quite untidy hair.

Historical, political and social

At the time the play was written and the time I would chose to set it, the Cold War was underway between communist Russia and capitalist America. Both countries had the capabilities to fire terrible weapons of mass destructions such as Atom bombs. It was a dangerous environment, and because Britain was in between the two countries, it was stuck in the middle.

Gus and Ben are hiding in the basement. They could be involved in the Cold War. The basement could be seen as a bunker, in fear of the war.
George Orwell’s 1984 was a story about Winston Smith who endures a squalid existence in totalitarian Oceania under the constant surveillance of Big Brother. But his life takes a horrifying turn when he begins a forbidden love affair and commits the crime of independent thought.
Ben and Gus could be under surveillance of the people above the basement just like in Orwell’s novel. These two are strongly linked with each other because both are under surveillance.

The Play in the context of the modern world

A twenty first century audience would find the play appealing and interesting because our society is much concerned with hiding in the modern world. For example, there are still a lot of organized gangs today. For example, Mafia, Yakuza and Triads etc.
Ben and Gus could have been seen as hiding from terrorists or something else outside that would cause harm to them. Perhaps they are terrorists themselves or members or members of the security services, hiding from something else.
A recent, major terrorist act that occurred was when two planes flew into the World Trade Centre’s Twin Towers in New York, killing over 5,000 people. Ben and Gus could be part of the evil that is outside as embodied in such terrorist attacks.
There are still plenty of hit men or bounty hunters around today. Another reason for the audience being appealed to this play is that jobs including assassinations cause interest because there are many modern television programs and movies, which include such actions, for example, The Sopranos and the James Bond series.