The Homecoming (Author Biography)

Author Biography

Harold Pinter was born in the northern borough of Hackney, a working-class section in London, England, on October 10, 1930. Pinter’s father, Hyman (Jack) was a hard-working tailor of women’s apparel and his mother, Frances, a homemaker. The Pinter family was part of the immigrant wave of Jews that arrived in London around the turn of the century. Pinter’s forebears came from Poland and Odessa and brought with them a love of culture and learning. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Pinter was evacuated to a castle in Cornwall for a year where, away from his loving home for the first time, he suffered loneliness, bewilderment, separation, and loss — themes that recur in all his works. He also discovered just how sly and nasty a group of boys isolated from their families could be. Back in Hackney, where he spent most of the war years, he was constantly made aware of the impermanence of life.

Pinter attended Hackney Downs Grammar School from 1944 to 1948, where his talents were inspired by Joe Brearley, an English teacher. Pinter wrote for the school magazine and discovered a flair for acting in school productions. He also was one of a group who called themselves “The Boys,” a sort of gang tied together by their common love for intellectual adventure. Along with other boyish pursuits, the group would often gather and argue about literature. Although the Boys were not immune from the desire for domination and the clashes brought about by sexual competition, many remained friends throughout their adult lives.

On leaving school, Pinter received a grant to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but he soon became disenchanted with the academic process and left after two terms. In 1948 he was called up for national military service and declared himself a conscientious objector, a status that was denied him. He was tried and expected to go to prison but instead was fined thirty pounds by a sympathetic magistrate and released. In 1951 he resumed his acting education at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He then spent eighteen months touring Ireland with the theatrical company of Anew McMaster followed by the 1953 London season with the company of Donald Wolfit. Following this activity, he took on the stage name David Baron and began acting in provincial repertory theatres. During this acting stint, Pinter met actress Vivian Merchant, with whom he often worked. The couple were married in 1956.

On May 9, 1957, one of the Hackney “Boys,” Henry Woolfe, asked Pinter to write a play to be produced six days later at Bristol University. Pinter, writing in the afternoons between morning rehearsals and evening performances, completed his first play, The Room, in four days. The production was a success and was subsequently entered in the Sunday Times student drama festival several months later. Harold Hobson, an influential drama critic for the paper, was so taken with the play that he wrote a highly favorable review.

Hobson’s accolade brought Pinter to the attention of Michael Codron, a young London producer, who asked the young actor if he had any other works he’d like to see produced. Pinter sent Codron The Birthday Party and The Dumb Waiter. The producer staged the former, which opened on April 28, 1958, to generally unfavorable reviews. Hobson, however, reviewed the play in the Sunday Times four days after opening night, stating that, based on the evidence of this play, “Mr. Pinter possesses the most original, disturbing, and arresting talent in theatrical London.” Despite such strong praise, it was too late to save that production of The Birthday Party and the show soon closed. The Dumb Waiter later had its first English production, coupled with The Room, at the Hampstead Theatre Club in 1960.

By the late 1950s, Pinter was becoming a playwright in increasing demand. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) commissioned Pinter to write a radio drama, a piece he called Something in Common, which was not produced. The BBC then commissioned another sixty-minute play, A Slight Ache (1959), the first of Pinter’s many (produced) plays written for radio or television. Also in 1959, Pinter wrote a series of comic sketches that were included in popular revues. In 1960, Pinter had his first major theatrical success with The Caretaker. Pinter, now recognized as an important writer, worked prolifically on his dramas, producing such works as Night School (1960), The Dwarfs (1960), The Collection (1961), The Lover (1963), The Tea Party (1965), and The Basement (1967). He also began working in the medium of film, writing the screenplays for The Servant (1963) and The Pumpkin Eater (1964), which both received major awards.

The Homecoming, Pinter’s third full-length play, was first produced at the New Theatre in Cardiff, Wales, in 1965. Under the auspices of the Royal Shakespeare Company, it moved to the Aldwych Theatre in London later that year. In 1967 the production made its American debut on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre. The play became a sensational success and established Pinter as a significant dramatist in the United States.

Throughout the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, Pinter has continued to flourish in theatre as a playwright, director (of both his own works and those by other playwrights), and occasionally as an actor. He also continues to write for films, including The Last Tycoon, The French Lieutenant’s Woman (adapted from the book by John Fowles), and Turtle Diary, as well as adaptations of his own plays (including The Birthday Party, Betrayal, and The Homecoming).

Pinter and Merchant had one child, a son named Daniel, before divorcing in 1980. He remarried later that year, taking the writer Lady Antonia Fraser as his wife. Pinter’s work has spanned five decades, and he remains one of the worlds most respected and widely produced playwrights.