Pinter Passes

Harold Pinter has died of cancer aged 78. Undoubtedly he was one of the finest playwrights of the C20th. The Nobel academy said he was a writer :

...who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms ...

Michael Billington pays tribute on the Guardian blog to :

... a great dramatist and screenwriter, a ferocious polemicist, a fighter against all forms of hypocrisy.

There's a wonderful piece about his life and work, written by Mel Gussow and Ben Brantley at the New York Times.

You can watch the BBC report here, and there are extracts from several of his plays on YouTube including from The Caretaker, The Birthday Party, and The Homecoming.