SOURCE: “Pinter and Menace,” in Drama Critique, Vol. 2, 1968, pp. 125-48.

In the following essay, Orley examines the elements of horror and menace in Pinter’s plays

Dramatically, as well as politically, terror and menace are most essential elements of Harold Pinter's vision of life: the horror of existence presented in truly threatening and frightening terms. Characters talk circles around each other, and frequently underlying a seemingly innocent speech is a savage threat; Mick chases Davies around in the dark with a vacuum cleaner in The Caretaker and nearly frightens the old man out of his wits; in The Collection one character makes threatening telephone calls to another and eventually begins to throw knives at him in a sort of “game”; Stanley Webber, in The Birthday Party, is driven out of his mind during an absurd and terrifying interrogation conducted by two seeming strangers; The Room ends on a...