Harold Pinter [E2] [F1] [S1] [I1] [I2] is considered one of the most important contemporary writers. He was born in east London in 1930[F1] [S1] [I1] . He was a son of a Jewish tailor. He spent his childhood amid the misery of the great economic depression of the 1930’s, followed by the violence of the Second World War. He attended the Royal Academic of Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama (RADA). His first play was the one-act work The Room (1957). The work was followed by The Birthday Party (1958) and The Dumb Waiter (1960). His work was neglected until 1960 when he wrote The Caretaker (1960). The production won several prizes and made his reputation.

He is committed in politics[S1][S2]; he deeply criticizes wars and yet nowadays fights for the respect of Human Rights. In 2005 he won the Nobel Prize [F1][S1] [I1] for Literature.

It is mainly to his plays that Harold Pinter owes his worldwide fame. He wrote for the stage, for the radio and for the television. He has produced significant poetry, prose, plays[E2][F1] , [S1]some of which have been turned into films.

The best of his dama production includes:

• The Room, (One Act) about a middle-aged woman living in a room and afraid that might arrive some mysterious intruder taking away her property

• The Birthday Party, (Three Acts – film version 1968) about an unemployed pianist who, during a party (his pretended birthday), he is abducted by two mysterious men.

• The Dumb Waiter , (One Act) about two killers sent by a mysterious organisation to a basement room to kill someone. In the end the victim is one of the two men.

• A Slight Ache, (radio 1959; stage 1961 – One Act), about a man who suffers from a “slight ache”

• The Caretaker, (Three Acts; film version 1963) about an old man who is a guest in the room of two brothers.

• Night School, (TV 1960) a young man manages to recover possession of his room. He loses his loved girl.

• The Homecoming (Two Acts), in which Teddy and Ruth (back from America after years) meet with the hostility of the family

• The Basement(One Act), about the struggle between two men for a room.

• Landscape (One Act), in which a couple is unable to communicate over the memories of their past lives.

• Silence (One Act), three characters alternate present-day monologues and memories.

• Old Times(Two Acts), in which past memories of four characters intersect in a mix of reality and imagination.

• No Man’s Land, (Two Acts) in which two middle-aged men try through memories to put a meaning in their lives before Death (“no man’s land”) comes.