The Birthday Party

Summary: Associated-Rediffusion production for ITV of Pinter’s The Birthday Party. This television première of the play was seen by 11 million viewers (source: Michael Billington, The Life and Work of Harold Pinter, p. 110).
Theatre play: The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter [more information]
Play synopsis: This play concerns ‘Stanley Webber, an erstwhile piano player in his 30s, who lives in a rundown boarding house, run by Meg and Petey Boles, in an English seaside town [...]. Two sinister strangers, Goldberg and McCann, who arrive supposedly on his birthday and who appear to have come looking for him, turn Stanley’s apparently innocuous birthday party organized by Meg into a nightmare’ (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birthday_Party_%28play%29).
Production history: The play had its world première at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge on 28 April 1958; a provincial tour was followed by some ‘catastrophic’ reviews on its transfer to the Lyric, Hammersmith, making it ‘one of the most famous flops in theatrical history’ (Michael Billington, The Life and Work of Harold Pinter, pp. 84 and 74).
Date of transmission: Tuesday 22 March 1960
Time: 9.35-11.05pm
Series: Play of the Week
Channel: ITV
Production company: Associated-Rediffusion (1955-1964)

Director

Joan Kemp-Welch (1906-1999)

Playwright

Harold Pinter

Composer

Ron Gainer

Designer

Fred Pusey

Cast

Alfred Burke	McCann
Michael Ely	understudy
Arthur Hewlett	Petey
Bernadette Milnes	Lulu
Lee Montague	Goldberg
Richard Pearson	Stanley (Pearson was in the stage première of this work.)
Margery Withers	Meg

Title: Associated-Rediffusion presents Play of the Week: The Birthday Party (Newspaper advertisement)
Reference: The Times, 22 March 1960, p. 15
Notes: with an image from the production

Title: Radio (Newspaper review)
Author/creator: Mary Crozier (Reviewer)
Reference: The Guardian, 25 March 1960, p. 11
Linking notes: passing mention in a review of a radio production of Pinter’s A Night Out

Title: The Birthday Party (Archive file)
Archive: BFI Reuben Library [more information]
Address
BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road
South Bank
London
SE1 8XT
UK
Email
Use the contact form at http://www.bfi.org.uk/form/contact-bfi-library
Website
http://www.bfi.org.uk/education-research/bfi-reuben-library/visiting-bfi-reuben-library
Access
The BFI Library is open from 10.30am to 7.00pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Access to special collections material is by appointment.
Reference: Special Collections, Associated-Rediffusion Television papers, file reference ART/133/1-2

This record has been viewed 463 times.

British Universities Film & Video Council