Pinter Celebration & The Room

Main
ISBN: 978-0-571-30066-2
Verlag: Faber & Faber
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 144 Seiten

A restaurant. Two curved banquettes. It's a celebration. Violent, wildly funny, Harold Pinter's new play displays a vivid zest for life. In The Room, Harold Pinter's first play, he reveals himself as already in full control of his unique ability to make dramatic poetry of the banalities of everyday speech and the precision with which it defines character. Harold Pinter's latest play, Celebration, and his first play, The Room directed by the author himself, premièred as a double-bill at London's Almeida Theatre in March 2000.

Harold Pinter was born in London in 1930. He lived with Antonia Fraser from 1975 and they married in 1980. In 1995 he won the David Cohen British Literature Prize, awarded for a lifetime's achievement in literature. In 1996 he was given the Laurence Olivier Award for a lifetime's achievement in theatre. In 2002 he was made a Companion of Honour for services to literature. In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and, in the same year, the Wilfred Owen Award for Poetry and the Franz Kafka Award (Prague). In 2006 he was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize and, in 2007, the highest French honour, the Légion d'honneur. He died in December 2008.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pinter, Harold

Leseproben

CELEBRATION

TABLE ONE

A restaurant. Two curved banquettes.

WAITER

Who’s having the duck?

LAMBERT

The duck’s for me.

JULIE

No it isn’t.

LAMBERT

No it isn’t. Who’s it for?

JULIE

Me.

LAMBERT

What am I having? I thought I was having the duck?

JULIE

(to WAITER) The duck’s for me.

MATT

(to WAITER) Chicken for my wife, steak for me.

WAITER

Chicken for the lady.

PRUE

Thank you so much.

WAITER

And who’s having the steak?

MATT

Me.

He picks up a wine bottle and pours.

Here we are. Frascati for the ladies. And Valpolicella for me.

LAMBERT

And for me. I mean what about me? What did I order? I haven’t the faintest idea? What did I order?

JULIE

Who cares?

LAMBERT

Who cares? I bloody care.

PRUE

Osso Buco.

LAMBERT

Osso what?

PRUE

Bucco.

MATT

It’s an old Italian dish.

LAMBERT

Well I knew Osso was Italian but I know bugger all about Bucco.

MATT

I didn’t know arsehole was Italian.

LAMBERT

Yes, but on the other hand what’s the Italian for arsehole?

PRUE

Julie, Lambert. Happy anniversary.

MATT

Cheers.

They lift their glasses and drink.

TABLE TWO

RUSSELL

They believe in me.

SUKI

Who do?

RUSSELL

They do. What do you mean, who do? They do.

SUKI

Oh, do they?

RUSSELL

Yes, they believe in me. They reckon me. They’re investing in me. In my nous. They believe in me.

SUKI

Listen. I believe you. Honestly. I do. No really, honestly. I’m sure they believe in you. And they’re right to believe in you. I mean, listen, I want you to be rich, believe me, I want you to be rich so that you can buy me houses and panties and I’ll know that you really love me.

They drink.

RUSSELL

Listen, she was just a secretary. That’s all. No more.

SUKI

Like me.

RUSSELL

What do you mean, like you? She was nothing like you.

SUKI

I was a secretary once.

RUSSELL

She was a scrubber. A scrubber. They’re all the same, these secretaries, these scrubbers. They’re like politicians. They love power. They’ve got a bit of power, they use it. They go home, they get on the phone, they tell their girlfriends, they have a good laugh. Listen to me. I’m being honest. You won’t find many like me. I fell for it. I’ve admitted it. She just twisted me round her little finger.

SUKI

That’s funny. I thought she twisted you round your little finger.

Pause.

RUSSELL

You don’t know what these girls are like. These secretaries.

SUKI

Oh I think I do.

RUSSELL

You don’t.

SUKI

Oh I do.

RUSSELL

What do you mean, you do?

SUKI

I’ve been behind a few filing cabinets.

RUSSELL

What?

SUKI

In my time. When I was a plump young secretary. I know what the back of a filing cabinet looks like.

RUSSELL

Oh do you?

SUKI

Oh yes. Listen. I would invest in you myself if I had any money. Do you know why? Because I believe in you.

RUSSELL

What’s all this about filing cabinets?

SUKI

Oh that was when I was a plump young secretary. I would never do all those things now. Never. Out of the question. You see, the trouble was I was so excitable, their excitement made me so excited, but I would never do all those things now I’m a grown-up woman and not a silly young thing, a silly and dizzy young girl, such a naughty, saucy, flirty, giggly young thing, sometimes I could hardly walk from one filing cabinet to another I was so excited, I was so plump and wobbly it was terrible, men simply couldn’t keep their hands off me, their demands were outrageous, but coming back to more important things, they’re right to believe in you, why shouldn’t they believe in you?

TABLE ONE

JULIE

I’ve always told him. Always. But he doesn’t listen. I tell him all the time. But he doesn’t listen.

PRUE

You mean he just doesn’t listen?

JULIE

I tell him all the time.

PRUE

(to LAMBERT) Why don’t you listen to your wife? She stands by you through thick and thin. You’ve got a loyal wife there and never forget it.

LAMBERT

I’ve got a loyal wife where?

PRUE

Here! At this table.

LAMBERT

I’ve got one under the table, take my tip.

He looks under the table.

Christ. She’s really loyal under the table. Always has been. You wouldn’t believe it.

JULIE

Why don’t you go and buy a new car and drive it into a brick wall?

LAMBERT

She loves me.

MATT

No, she loves new cars.

LAMBERT

With soft leather seats.

MATT

There was a song once.

LAMBERT

How did it go?

MATT

Aint she neat?
Aint she neat?
As she’s walking up the street.
She’s got a lovely bubbly pair of tits
And a soft leather seat.

LAMBERT

That’s a really beautiful song.

MATT

I’ve always admired that song. You know what it is? It’s a traditional folk song.

LAMBERT

It’s got class.

MATT

It’s got tradition and class.

LAMBERT

They don’t grow on trees.

MATT

Too bloody right.

LAMBERT

Hey Matt!

MATT

What?

LAMBERT picks up the bottle of Valpolicella. It is empty.

LAMBERT

There’s something wrong with this bottle.

MATT turns and calls.

MATT

Waiter!

TABLE TWO

RUSSELL

All right. Tell me. Do you think I have a nice character?

SUKI

Yes I think you do. I think you do. I mean I think you do. Well … I mean … I think you could have quite a nice character but the trouble is that when you come down to it you haven’t actually got any character to begin with – I mean as such, that’s the thing.

RUSSELL

As such?

SUKI

Yes, the thing is you haven’t really got any character at all, have you? As such. Au fond. But I wouldn’t worry about it. For example look at me. I don’t have any character either. I’m just a reed. I’m just a reed in the wind. Aren’t I? You know I am. I’m just a reed in the wind.

RUSSELL

You’re a whore.

SUKI

A whore in the wind.

RUSSELL

With the wind blowing up your skirt.

SUKI

That’s right. How did you know? How did you know the sensation? I didn’t know that men could possibly know about that kind of thing. I mean men don’t wear skirts. So I didn’t think men could possibly know what it was like when the wind blows up a girl’s skirt. Because men don’t wear skirts.

RUSSELL

You’re a...