I went along last Sunday to the Marxism 2009 event here in London, that took place over a period of 5 days from 2-6 July. And attended the Harold Pinter talk at the Brunei Gallery. The speakers there were Samuel West and the Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington who has also written a few books on Pinter himself. The talk was fascinating for many reasons. To begin with for me personally, to discover that Pinter actually grew up a few streets away from where you live has always been most intriguing. The amount inner strength it took to break away from his meagre beginnings and to become one of the worlds greatest Playwrights is nothing short of amazing. It also meant that he understood real people. The inspiration he produced gave hope to many, that with enough faith in yourself anything is possible.
Both Sam and Michael discussed some of their personal experiences with Pinter, a few were moving and others were hilarious. Sam read from his own written speech that he did in response to Pinter's passing, and he also read from some of Pinter's plays and poems. With one of my favourites being Robert from BETRAYAL. Michael told us some of his very interesting interactions with Pinter as well. The evening ended with a short Q&A type discussion with the audience which at times was pretty amusing. It was a lovely and quite an emotional evening for everyone. Very informative, and great fun too. With the only person missing being Pinter himself, who I'm sure was there in spirit laughing at the lot of us!
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