Harold Pinter, R.I.P.

British Nobel laureate Harold Pinter — who produced some of his generation's most influential dramas and later became a staunch critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq — has died, his widow said Thursday.

Pinter died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer, according to his second wife Antonia Fraser.
In recent years he had seized the platform offered by his 2005 Nobel Literature prize to denounce President George W. Bush, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the war in Iraq.

But he was best known for exposing the complexities of the emotional battlefield.
His writing featured cool, menacing pauses in dialogue that reflected his characters' deep emotional struggles and spawned a new adjective found in several dictionaries: "Pinter-esque."

"Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles," the Nobel Academy said. "With a minimum of plot, drama emerges from the power struggle and hide-and-seek of interlocution."

Harold Pinter was a force of nature. I always loved plays and like a lot of kids was in high school productions. I took a class in university at Calgary once in theatre and it was a total blast...and for ten years I participated in comedy improv workshops...in Toronto and was in a small troupe callled "Zuzu's Petals" with my friends Suz and Anita.

Harold Pinter had several of his plays produced into movies...if I was going to recommend any of his movie scripts as an introduction I would recommend Betrayal starring Jeremy Irons. I saw this when I was taking film workshops and in art classes at York...and I was so blown away by how the story was told and the way we slowly came to know the characters. In many ways...I am not a huge fan of drama storyarcs...but Pinter seemed to compel me. He also adapted the novel The French Lieutenant's Woman to the screen absolutely brilliantly. (I hope he got an Oscar for that...if not, he should have!)

I had no idea he was married to the indomitable Antonia Frazer. Right now...as I look to my bookshelf I see her work on The Gunpowder Plot, King Arther and the Round Table, Marie Antoinette and Mary Queen of Scots. This couple was off the chain huh? What an amazing pair they must have made at a dinner party! Antonia Frazer has often been one of my fantasy dinner quests...

Harold Pinter and Antona Frazer getting hitched in the 60's.

I worked in a nightclub at one point in the 80's and there was a server that I had a wee crush on. He was an actor...and like many women...I decided the best thing to do was to dive into reading all the plays I could...in order to strike up a casual conversation about O'Neil or Heathcote Williams. You know over a coffee break. I read the entire works of writers like Pinter, Beckett and Mamet.

Harold Pinter was always fascinating to me because he was so concerned with very specific qualities about the human condition. Reading him was like entering a group therapy session. He could be grueling and heartbreaking. Just today it was very moving to read his obit and how he had stood up to that massive disappointment Tony Blair over the Iraq war. Good on you Harold Pinter!

You know, that actor who I read all the plays for...never did ever notice I was even alive heh heh...but I think there is something interesting about women. We get so involved in certain fantasies in our crushes and often...this is a secret I'm revealing about my gender...we often study at great length the interests of our beloved...and like alchemists we have the magic power to become what we admire from afar. Even though I never did hook up with that actor/waiter...I learned so much about plays and stories. I often laugh at how a weird little crush got me so involved in reading so many plays. I mean who reads plays? Ten years later that fellows best friend had a small part in a short film I wrote and produced called Poodle...and I thought about Harold Pinter when I wrote it...and the weird full circle of inspirations.

Sometimes...hell most times...we shouldn't look at relationships or events that "don't work out" as failures but what inner levels of learning they give us. Who knew a cute waiter would change reading habits...

I'm going to have a toast to Harold Pinter today...and to all the cute actor/waiters in the world...skoll!