Landscape

by Harold Pinter

Landscape is a one-act play by Harold Pinter that was first broadcast on radio in 1968 and first performed on stage in 1969. The play shows the difficulties of communication between two people in a marriage. This is illustrated through the two characters who appear to be talking to one another though neither seems to hear the other. The dialogue resembles two independent monologues. The play is often studied, read, and performed alongside Silence, another one-act play published soon after Landscape. Both plays mark a change in Pinter's style, with echoes of the work of Samuel Beckett.[1] In both plays nothing happens, the action of the plays is brought to a halt putting an added emphasis on the role of the dialogues and monologues that take place. As one critic put it "nothing happens but much is explored".

Genres: Plays, Drama

Unknown Binding

About the author

Harold Pinter was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964) and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993) and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television and film productions of his own and others' works.

Reviews

[kiho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wikipedia says about this play "the official theatre censor (...) refused it a licence unless Pinter removed its strong language" (which he didn't).

Censor report: "The nearer to Beckett, the more portentous Pinter gets. This is a long one-act play without any plot or development ... a lot of useless information about the treatment of beer ... And of course, there have to be the ornamental indecencies."

Yes and no.

Ornamental indecencies (what a wonderfully cheeky turn of phrase) are the icing on the cake of Pinter's works and in fact I'm going to have to insist on stumbling upon them in everything he has written.

[Natcha♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

People often say it's just one of Pinter's ordinary memory plays. But Pinter's is never ordinary. This play is exceptional. It's short and destructed, but once everything is put back together, it'll sure leave a long-lasting heart-break in you.

[Serkan Kasapoglu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Regrets about the untold things. Söylenmek istenip söylenemeyen şeyler için üzülmek. The missed moments of life. The missed opportunities. How would my life look like if I had…? Regret. Doubt. Hopelessness. Captured. Spent life. But for what?

[Sarkis Antonyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh man how can writing imbue silence with such meaning like this it is inspiring and grand and deafening