Photo by Ivan Kynkl

This was a resource pack for the Sheffield Theatres 2002 production of The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter, directed by Erica Whyman. The pack is designed for post-performance use (some pre-performance work can be found in this folder) and is aimed at students studying Drama, Theatre Studies or English Literature, as well as providing a general resource for audiences visiting the production.

Click on the links to view the PDF (this may take a few moments to load). Alternatively you can right click on the link to the PDF and select "save to disk" from the fly-out menu. You will then be asked to choose a location on your machine in which to save each download.

The pack is in 4 sections.

The play (PDF 247KB)
background and socio-historic context, including plot synopsis, the life and works of Harold Pinter, the first staging of the play in 1958, Pinter in context, how Pinter became a writer and the Crucible company with photographs and credits.

Pinter’s Hallmarks: (PDF 45KB)
themes and techniques used by Pinter, including
setting, character and language. Also includes books for further reading.

Getting The Birthday Party up on its feet (PDF 35KB)
a guide to exploring a scene from the play, with Director’s notes from Erica Whyman.

Production (PDF 67KB)
Director, Erica Whyman’s casting diary and design concept.
Also Designer, Soutra Gilmour talks about the creative process of designing for The Birthday Party. With photographs of the model set design.

Adobe Acrobat PDF files

Portable Document Files (PDF) can be opened on PC and Macintosh computers. To read them though you need the specific Adobe Acrobat Reader software. This can be downloaded for free from their website.

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