by Julia Lafferty posted in the Hackney Gazette
Clapton Cinematograph Theatre Hackney
With the passing of Harold Pinter on Christmas Eve, the world has lost a great dramatist and writer, and a man of deepest principle and humanity. Harold Pinter was born into a working family in Hackney's Jewish community in 1930. His father was a jobbing tailor and the family lived as 19 Thistlewaite Road in Lower Clapton. After a period of war-time evacuation, he attended Hackney Downs Grammar School, where he met schoolteacher Joseph Brearley, who was to prove a major influence on his future development. Pinter relates in his anthology of writings, Various, Various, how he and Joe embarked on a series of walks which continued for years, discussing literature and drama as they went. On Joe Brearley's death in 1977 Pinter commemorated him in a poem which concluded with the lines: "You're gone. I'm at your side, walking with you from Clapton Pond to Finsbury Park, and on and on." Pinter wrote: "Joe Brearley fired my imagination. I can never forget him." Across the world, many are now echoing this sentiment about Pinter himself. His plays are lauded the world over. Works such as The Birthday Party, The Homecoming and The Caretaker occupy an important place in the history of world theatre and have established Pinter as a playwright of international reputation. This was recognised in 2005 by the award to him of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Pinter was also passionate about the cinema and was responsible for 22 screenplays, including such classic films as The Servant, Accident, The Go-Between and The French Lieutenant's Woman.
What better and more appropriate tribute to his memory could there be than the establishment of a centre for the cinematic arts at the former Clapton Cinematograph Theatre building at 229 Lower Clapton Road, opposite Thistlewaite Road where Pinter spent his youth. Due to celebrate its centenary in 2010, the old cinema building has stood empty and unused since 2006, and is in danger of falling into dereliction. The recent petition undertaken by The Friends of Clapton Cinematograph Theatre for the restoration and re-opening of the building as a cinema has attracted thousands of signatories already, and a recent poll in the Hackney Gazette, held in conjunction with The Hackney Society, put the Clapton Cinematograph Theatre near the top of the list of historic buildings which readers wished to see restored. More information about the Friends of Clapton Cinematograph Theatre can be found on the http://www.saveourcinema.org/ website. Join us in campaigning to create a centre for the cinematic arts at Clapton Pond - a lasting tribute to one of our greatest dramatists and writers.
Clapton Cinematograph Theatre Hackney
With the passing of Harold Pinter on Christmas Eve, the world has lost a great dramatist and writer, and a man of deepest principle and humanity. Harold Pinter was born into a working family in Hackney's Jewish community in 1930. His father was a jobbing tailor and the family lived as 19 Thistlewaite Road in Lower Clapton. After a period of war-time evacuation, he attended Hackney Downs Grammar School, where he met schoolteacher Joseph Brearley, who was to prove a major influence on his future development. Pinter relates in his anthology of writings, Various, Various, how he and Joe embarked on a series of walks which continued for years, discussing literature and drama as they went. On Joe Brearley's death in 1977 Pinter commemorated him in a poem which concluded with the lines: "You're gone. I'm at your side, walking with you from Clapton Pond to Finsbury Park, and on and on." Pinter wrote: "Joe Brearley fired my imagination. I can never forget him." Across the world, many are now echoing this sentiment about Pinter himself. His plays are lauded the world over. Works such as The Birthday Party, The Homecoming and The Caretaker occupy an important place in the history of world theatre and have established Pinter as a playwright of international reputation. This was recognised in 2005 by the award to him of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Pinter was also passionate about the cinema and was responsible for 22 screenplays, including such classic films as The Servant, Accident, The Go-Between and The French Lieutenant's Woman.
What better and more appropriate tribute to his memory could there be than the establishment of a centre for the cinematic arts at the former Clapton Cinematograph Theatre building at 229 Lower Clapton Road, opposite Thistlewaite Road where Pinter spent his youth. Due to celebrate its centenary in 2010, the old cinema building has stood empty and unused since 2006, and is in danger of falling into dereliction. The recent petition undertaken by The Friends of Clapton Cinematograph Theatre for the restoration and re-opening of the building as a cinema has attracted thousands of signatories already, and a recent poll in the Hackney Gazette, held in conjunction with The Hackney Society, put the Clapton Cinematograph Theatre near the top of the list of historic buildings which readers wished to see restored. More information about the Friends of Clapton Cinematograph Theatre can be found on the http://www.saveourcinema.org/ website. Join us in campaigning to create a centre for the cinematic arts at Clapton Pond - a lasting tribute to one of our greatest dramatists and writers.
Julia Lafferty,
Secretary,
Friends of Clapton Cinematograph Theatre,
32 Ickburgh Road,
Hackney
London
E5 8AD
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment