August 2006
Sheffield Theatres presents Pinter: A Celebration
PINTER: A CELEBRATION
 Harold Pinter has delighted and disturbed us for more than fifty years. Always thrillingly original, his status as the greatest English writer of the age was confirmed when in 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Recently retired from playwriting after completing 29 plays and 22 screenplays, Pinter remains, "to his credit, a permanent public nuisance" (Michael Billington), composing poems, sketches, articles and passionate, antagonistic political pieces.
 How best to honour a man with a vision so powerful he has his own adjective, 'Pinteresque'? Centered around our production of The Caretaker in the Crucible, across the building, and across the city, Sheffield Theatres present a programme of performances, screenplays, readings, speaker meetings and to kick things off, a cricket match against the Gaieties, Harold Pinter's beloved team.
Each event is designed to illuminate one facet of Pinter's prodigious output. See a few and enjoy his classic plays even more, or see them all, and become an expert!
 Sheffield Theatres presents
THE CARETAKER
Wednesday 11 October – Saturday 11 November 2006
Crucible
Tickets: £1 - £19
Director Jamie Lloyd
Designer Soutra Gilmour
Lighting Designer Oliver Fenwick
 Aston finds Davies in a café and takes him under his wing until he 'gets himself sorted out'. The lonely drifter with no home, no occupation and two names becomes the Caretaker, not only of the house Aston shares with his brother Mick, but also of the brothers' daydreams of palaces, exotic places and a better life. Uncomfortable, then bewildered, then furious at the politely overbearing atmosphere, Davies triggers psychological power games that are both funny and menacing.
Pinter masterfully explores the borderline between fantasy and reality in a story that is part situation comedy, part tragedy and all absorbing.
The cast comprises David Bradley (Filch in the Harry Potter film series),Nigel Harman (most recently seen in Michael Grandage's production of Guys and Dolls in the West End and as Dennis Rickman in EastEnders) and Con O'Neill (last year nominated for an Olivier Award for his role in Telstar in the West End).
For Production Insights and information on the Take Care Response Project linked to The Caretaker click here
EVENTS AT SHEFFIELD THEATRES:
PAUSE FOR THOUGHT
Monday 30 October 2006 7.45pm
Crucible
Tickets £10
Book Online
Penelope Wilton and Douglas Hodge, two of our most accomplished Pinter actors, are in conversation with Michael Billington, Guardian theatre critic and biographer of Harold Pinter. This promises to be a lively and insightful discussion about the trials and triumphs of acting in Pinter's plays.
VOICES
Wednesday 1 November 2006 1pm (lasts 30 minutes)
Studio
Free but ticketed
Words by Harold Pinter
Music by James Clarke
Presented in a darkened Studio theatre, Voices is a radio collaboration between voice and music as compelling as it is uncompromising. Voices of the torture and the tortured are set to a haunting radiophonic score. Specially commissioned by Radio 3, the cast includes Roger Lloyd-Pack, Douglas Hodge, and Pinter himself.
NO MAN'S LAND
Friday 3 November 2006 2pm
Studio
Tickets: £8
Book Online
Hirst has met Spooner in a Hampstead pub, and invited him back to his sterile, drink-filled home. Can Spooner stake a claim and establish himself permanently in this carpeted mausoleum? This is a wonderful opportunity to see Corin Redgrave and Timothy West in a rehearsed reading of Pinter's 1974 classic.
FAMILY VOICES
Monday 6 November 2006 7.30pm
Crucible
Tickets: £20
Book Online
An evening with the West Family Repertory Company. Samuel West is joined by his mother Prunella Scales and father Timothy West for a live performance of Pinter's comedy Family Voices. In the second half Sam will interview his parents about their combined experience of more than 100 years in the business.
Family Voices will air on the BBC Radio Sheffield Rony Robinson programme at 1pm on the 9th November. This event is part of the BBC Radio Sheffield RaW campaign. For further details of this and other RaW events contact BBC Radio Sheffield Action Desk on 0114 2675444.
PINTER IN CONVERSATION
Tuesday 7 November 2006 6pm
Studio
Tickets: £5 (£3 discounts)
Sheffield Theatres are delighted to announce that Harold Pinter will appear in conversation in the Studio Theatre joined by his longtime friend, Harry Burton. Winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature, Pinter is considered the greatest English playwright of his generation. Currently directing a documentary about Pinter for Channel 4, actor and director Harry Burton will be familiar to Sheffield audiences as Sky Masterson in the Christmas 2000 production of Guys and Dolls.
TEA PARTY
Thursday 9 November 2006 3pm
Eat Restaurant, Crucible
Tickets: £15
Afternoon Tea and the poetry of Harold Pinter, read to you by Nigel Harman, Samuel West and others, accompanied by music from the Elias String Quartet, members of Ensemble 360º. Tea and scones served at your table is a sure way to unwind and appreciate Pinter's important and too little-known poetry.
THE ROOM
Wednesday 11 October – Saturday 11 November 2006
Foyer of the Crucible Theatre
Free and unticketed
Inspired by Pinter's first play, we are building a self-contained room in the Crucible foyer. Inside this room (viewed through holes in the plaster work) we will present short pieces by or inspired by Pinter. Each evening sees a different performance by a different cast. This is a free event taking place before, during the interval and after every performance of The Caretaker.
For further information or to buy tickets call Sheffield Theatres Ticket Office on 0114 249 6000
EVENTS AT THE SHOWROOM:
 THE GO-BETWEEN (1969)
Saturday 30 September 2006 6pm
Directed by Joseph Losey
Screenplay by Harold Pinter, from the novel by L P Hartley
With Julie Christie and Alan Bates
The Go-Between exposes the social hypocrisy and secret passions beneath the privileged surface of life in a great house. Pinter is in his element here, adapting L.P. Hartley's novel with scrupulous fidelity, yet with his own uncanny skill depicting people who use words to conceal rather than reveal.
 ACCIDENT (1966)
Sunday 1 October 2006 6pm
Directed by Joseph Losey
Screenplay by Harold Pinter from the novel by Nicholas Mosley
With Dirk Bogarde and Michael York
Accident is about a married Oxford professor (Dirk Bogarde) going through the pangs of a mid-life crisis as he succumbs to the stifling emotional repression of the society in which he lives. Things begin to change for him when he meets Anna, a beautiful student but his feelings can only end in tragedy for the couple.
 THE BIRTHDAY PARTY (1967)
Tuesday 10 October 2006 6pm
Showing to celebrate Pinter's 76th birthday
Directed by William Friedkin
Original play by Harold Pinter
With Robert Shaw, Patrick McNee and Dandy Nicholls
The Birthday Party is a study of domination that sows doubts, terror, and apprehension inside the four walls of a living-room in a seaside boarding-house. Pinter balances humdrum realism with suggestions of unfathomable violence, making the film by turns both funny and horrific.
 THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1980)
Saturday 14 October 2006 6pm
Directed by Karel Reisz
Screenplay by Harold Pinter
With Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons
Set in 1867, this is the story of a strange young woman and the English gentleman who finds her mystery and sadness irresistible. Simultaneously, a parallel story of the affair between the two lead actors in a film adaptation unfolds. Pinter's highly unconventional but sensitive approach to John Fowles' modern classic pays off handsomely, resulting in a film which is literate, imaginative and visually stunning.
 MOJO (1997)
Sunday 15 October 2006 6pm
Directed by Jez Butterworth
Screenplay by Jez and Tom Butterworth
With Ian Hart, Ewan Bremner and Harold Pinter
Pinter the actor: he plays Sam Ross, a suave, predatory gangster with his eye on a helpless young rocker. Mojo revisits the dawn of rock-and-roll mass hysteria, but this is no nostalgic homage to the Mersey beat. While the film's would-be Elvis gyrates in a Soho club, the most important rhythm is that of money rolling in. Seduction, treachery, vitality and homoerotic heat make a memorable mixture.
 REUNION (1989)
Saturday 21 October 2006 6pm
Directed by Jerry Schatzberg
Screenplay by Harold Pinter, from the novel by Fred Uhlman
With Jason Robards, Christien Anholt and Samuel West
Two young boys, Hans (a Jew) and Konradin (an aristocrat) become friends in 1933 Stuttgart. After the election of Hitler as Chancellor, Konradin announces that he believes Hitler to be Germany's only hope. Disgusted and in danger, Hans escapes to America and returns fifty years later to find out what happened to his friend. A haunting and beautiful film. The showing will be introduced by Samuel West.
 THE SERVANT (1963)
Sunday 22 October 2006 6pm
Directed by Joseph Losey
Screenplay by Harold Pinter, fom the novel by Robin Maugham
With Dirk Bogarde, James Fox and Sarah Miles
The Servant takes a sharp look at British class relations as a dainty Oxbridge bachelor (James Fox) is exploited by his contemptuous manservant (Dirk Bogarde). The servant slowly realizes his expanding powers over the master, who becomes enslaved to his own employee. A film which is both elegant and tough; corrosive yet compassionate; visually exciting and yet meaningful; brilliant and profound. The Servant is a masterpiece.
 THE PUMPKIN EATER (1964)
Saturday 28 October 2006 6pm
Directed by Jack Clayton
Screenplay by Harold Pinter, from the novel by Penelope Mortimer
With Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, Maggie Smith and James Mason
Another rare screening, this time for Pinter's most neglected film, and arguably his greatest screenplay. This study of a marriage breakdown which ends in all-out war has been called 'a very, very black comedy'. The late lamented Anne Bancroft shines as an isolated woman with five children trying to cope with loneliness and an unfaithful husband.
All films are being screened at the Showroom Cinema on Paternoster Row, to buy tickets visit the cinema or call the box office on 0114 275 7727. Standard tickets are £5.70 / £4 concessions.
PINTER QUIZ NIGHT
Monday 23 October 2006 7.30pm
The Showroom Bar
Free and unticketed
With Samuel West as your quizmaster
This week the Showroom quiz is given over to questions on Pinter's seventeen films.
EVENTS AROUND TOWN:
 ASHES TO ASHES – A CRICKETING CELEBRATION
Sunday 24 September 2006 1pm
Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
Suggested minimum donation £10
Apart from being the world's foremost living dramatist, Harold Pinter is a keen cricketer and the chairman of the Gaieties Cricket Club. To launch the Pinter Celebration, we have challenged them to a match in the beautiful setting of Chatsworth. The Crucible XI includes our own artistic director Samuel West, Paul Sturrock (manager of Sheffield Wednesday FC), Nigel Harman and Leslie Grantham (both from EastEnders). Please come and show your support for the Crucible. Why not make a day of it and bring along a picnic, then join us for some post-match analysis in the pavilion?
Capacity is limited to 150 people so please call the Sheffield Theatres Ticket Office on 0114 249 6000 to ensure you get a place. In the case of inclement weather a revised event will take place offering the opportunity to meet our celebrity players. Details of how to get to Chatsworth and parking facilities can be found on www.chatsworth.org
THE NEW WORLD ORDER – A PAUSE FOR PEACE
Including the Nobel Prize Lecture © Illuminations, 2005
Sunday 29 October 2006 7.30pm
Quaker Meeting House, St James Street.
Free but ticketed
Silence and pacifism are both important to Pinter, a conscientious objector. We are very grateful to the Sheffield Quakers for their thoughtful support of a meeting to consider Pinter's pacifist writing. The first half will include poems and prose by Pinter and Wilfred Owen, and the second half consists of a screening of Pinter's passionate and antagonistic 45-minute Nobel Prize Lecture.
Tickets are available from Sheffield Theatres Ticket Office on 0114 249 6000 or on the door.
 ARENA: HAROLD PINTER
Sunday 5 November 2006 2pm
The Students Union, The University of Sheffield, Western Bank
Tickets: £5, £3 concessions
The definitive two-part documentary of Pinter's life and work. Part one, The Room, examines Pinter's early work by rediscovering the rooms he wrote in, lived in and was inspired by. The second part, Celebration, takes on the public story of this internationally acclaimed author. The showing will be introduced by Anthony Wall, series producer of Arena.
 ONE FOR THE ROAD/THE DUMB WAITER
Sunday 5 November 2006 5pm
The Students Union, The University of Sheffield, Western Bank
Tickets: £4, £2 concessions
This double bill comprises a recording of the celebrated 2001 production of One for the Road (starring Pinter, Lloyd Hutchinson and Indira Varma and Pinter and his longtime friend, Oscar-winning playwright Ronald Harwood reading the classic two-hander, The Dumb Waiter in a performance for Arena in 2002. Introduced by the director, Martin Rosenbaum.
Tickets for these two events will be sold on the door. These showings are presented in collaboration with Sheffield International Documentary Festival and Sheffield University Student Union.
 PINTER PORTRAIT
Monday 25 September - Saturday 11 November 2006
Graves Art Gallery
Free
Detail from Harold Pinter by Justin Mortimer, 1992 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Visit the Graves Art Gallery foyer during Pinter: A Celebration and see Harold Pinter, by Justin Mortimer, 1992. This work is on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, London.
On Thursday 19 October at 1pm there will be a lunchtime talk at the Graves about Mortimer's portrait of Pinter and the dramatist as revealed in his work given by Sian Brown, Senior Curator of Visual Art, Simon Finnegan, University of Sheffield and Jamie Lloyd, Director of Sheffield Theatres' production of The Caretaker. This event is free and unticketed.
To see more work from the National Portrait Gallery visit Angus McBean: Portraits, touring to the Graves Art Gallery this winter (2 December - 10 March). The exhibition presents one of the twentieth century's most significant portrait photographers, featuring key figures from stage, screen and popular culture including classic images of Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn, and The Beatles. The Graves Art Gallery is located on the top floor of the central library on Surrey Street. For more information visit www.sheffieldgalleries.org.uk or call 0114 278 2600.
 Back
to Latest News
|
Top of Page