presentation about "The Birthday party" as play comedy menace

1. Name :- Kishan Jadav
MA Sem :- 02
Batch :- 2020-2022
Roll no. :- 10
Enrollment No. :- 3069206420200008
Paper No. :-10A: History of English Literature – From 1900 to 2000
Topic :- The Birthday Party Paly comedy of Menace.
Email id :- jadavkishan55555@gmail.com
Submitted to :- S.B.Gardi Department Of English,MKBU

2. INTRODUCTION :
Comedy of menace is the body of plays written by
David Campton, Nigel Dennis, N. F. Simpson, and
Harold Pinter. - The term was coined by drama
critic Irving Wardle, who borrowed it from the
subtitle of Campton's play The Lunatic View: A
Comedy of Menace, in reviewing Pinter's
Campton's plays in Encore in 1958.

3. Comedy of Menace' is much different from sentimental comedy
and anti-sentimental comedy. = Humor. Menace = Threatening
fear in mind.'
the comedy of menace is a tragedy with a number of comic
elements. -it is a comedy, which also produces an
overwhelming tragic effect. Throughout the play we are kept
amused and yet throughout the play we find ourselves also on
the brink of terror. Some indefinable and vague fear keeps our
nerves edge. We feel uneasy all the time even when we are
laughing or smiling with amusement. This dual quality gives to
the play a unique character
What is comedy of menace?

4. The menace is produced throughout the play from potential or
actual violence or from an underline sense of violence
throughout the play.
The actual/ cause of menace is difficult to define: it may be
because, the audience feels an uncertainty and insecurity
throughout the play.
The Birthday Party and Look Back in Anger perfectly reveal the
individual and social problems and doubts that great Britain
was moving through during the post-war era.
Continue….

5. Born on 10th October, 1930, in East
London , England.
Died on the 24th December, 2008,
at the age of 78.
A playwright, director, actor, poet
and political activist.
Known for his so - called comedies
of Menace. Nobel Prize winner in
2005.
Harold Pinter :

6. Pinter was multiple working people and was better in
representation of "Comedy of Menace".
Let introduce his work which was written during nineteenth
century:-
The BirthdayParty (1975). The French Lieutenant's Woman
(1981).
The Homecoming (1964). The Trial (1993).
Betrayal (1978). Sleuth (2007).
The Servant (1963). The Go-Between (1971).
His works :-

7. Harold Pinter criticizes some important political,
economical system of England.
Irving Ward- a critic who quotes that Harold Pinter's
play "The Birthday Party" has the effect of menace.
Harold Pinter has been died from liver on 24th
December, 2008.
Continue…...

8. Harold Pinter, Best example for comedy
of menace.
Birthday party is one of his best known
and frequently performed plays.
Harold Pinter's 'The Birthday Party' tells
the story of several characters at an
English seaside boarding house.
Seemingly innocent situations spiral out
of control as the characters'
monotonous lives descend into chaos.
BIRTHDAY PARTY :

9. “They won't come. Someone's taking the Michael. Forget all
about it.”
Act - I]
They're looking for someone. A certain person.
[Act - I]
In the setting of a rundown seaside boarding house, a little birthday party is
turned into a nightmare on the unexpected arrival of two sinister
strangers.The play has been classified as a comedy of menace,
characterised by Pinteresque elements such as ambiguous identity,
confusions of time and place, and dark political symbolism.

10. Goldberg: You know what I said
when this job came up. I mean
naturally they approached me to
take care of it. And you know who I
asked for?
McCann: Who?
Goldberg: You.
[Act - I]

11. Goldberg: ...All is dependent on the attitude of
our subject. At all events, McCann, I can assure
you that the assignment will be carried out and
the mission accomplished with no excessive
aggravation to you or myself.
[Act - I]

12. Conclusion
• The Birthday Party has been described (some
say "pigeonholed") by Irving Wardle and later
critics as a "comedy of menace" and by Martin
Esslin as an example of the Theatre of the
Absurd.
•It includes such features as the fluidity and
ambiguity of time, place, and identity and the
disintegration of language.

13. References
Kirby ET. Paranoid pseudo community in Pinter's the
birthday party. Educational Theatre Journal 30.2
(1978): 157-164. JSTOR. Web. 26 Sep; 2013.
Pinter Harold. Art, truth and politics. New Delhi:
Three Essays Collective; 2010.
Sahai Surendra. Harold Pinter a critical evaluation.
Austria: Universität Salzburg; 1981.
Szpeth, Lukas. Harold Pinter’s Comedies of Menace.
Fear and Control in "The Birthday Party". GRIN
Verlag, 2019.