Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Stanley Kauffmann

Critical Essay by Stanley Kauffmann

SOURCE: “Landscape and Silence,” in The New Republic, Vol. 162, No. 2887, April 25, 1970, pp. 20, 31.

In the following review, Kauffmann applauds the “gentleness” he sees in Silence and Landscape.

Harold Pinter's new short plays reveal a new Pinter. He doesn't produce much, but usually a new Pinter work means some sort of development. Each of his successive long plays, The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming—has shown, within the realm of Pinter's temperament, differences in control and interest. These two new short pieces are Pinter's first works of gentleness.

Neither play has a story, not even a logically eccentric one like The Homecoming. It's possible, retrospectively, to put together something of a story for each, but it has to be done merely as outline, not explanation. Otherwise the implication is that Pinter thought up a plot, then jigsawed it into a puzzle, and scattered the bits out...
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