ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. This book focuses on Pinter’s pre-theatrical writing. It discusses Pinter’s time at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), where he developed a successful working relationship with Peter Hall that would continue for over twenty years. The book looks at an unpublished and unfilmed screenplay for an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of King Lear that was completed in 2000. In 2005, the Nobel Prize Committee described Pinter as ‘the foremost representative of British drama in the second half of the 20th century’. Shakespeare leads to all roads, but some roads are more significant than others. From his earliest surviving writing about Shakespeare in 1950, and earlier performance, to his screenplay fifty years later, Pinter’s engagement with Shakespeare’s work is deeply ingrained in his artistic outlook.
