Celebration (play)

2000 play by Harold Pinter

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Celebration" play – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

Celebration is a play by British playwright Harold Pinter. It was first presented as a double-bill, with Pinter's first play The Room on Thursday 16 March 2000 at the Almeida Theatre in London.[1]

## Synopsis

[edit]

The plot revolves around three couples dining in the most expensive restaurant in town (an allusion to The Ivy restaurant in London). At one table are sat two brothers, Lambert and Matt, and two sisters, Prue and Julie. Lambert and Julie are married, as are Matt and Prue. They are celebrating Lambert and Julie's wedding anniversary. Seated at another table are Russell and Suki, who later join the other party of diners. The diners' conversations are intersected by the existential ponderings of Richard, the restaurateur (a character based on the London restaurateur Jeremy King), Sonia the maitresse d', and an unnamed Waiter. The dialogue begins as an apparently ordinary celebratory meal for the diners developing into a complex weaving of more sinister themes, including undercurrents of love/hate relationships and incest. The play ends with a mysterious (and 'incomplete') speech from the waiter, which hints at a possible way to escape the pain of everyday life.

## Original cast

[edit]

Lambert  | Keith Allen

|

Matt  | Andy de la Tour
Prue  | Lindsay Duncan
Julie  | Susan Wooldridge
Russell  | Steven Pacey
Suki  | Lia Williams
Richard  | Thomas Wheatley
Sonia  | Indira Varma
Waiter  | Danny Dyer
Waitress 1  | Nina Raine
Waitress 2  | Katherine Tozer

## Television adaptation

[edit]

In 2006, director John Crowley adapted Celebration for More4. It was first shown on More4 on Monday 26 February 2007.

### Original television cast

[edit]

Lambert  | Michael Gambon

|

Matt  | James Bolam
Prue  | Julia McKenzie
Julie  | Penelope Wilton
Russell  | Colin Firth
Suki  | Janie Dee
Richard  | James Fox
The Waitress (Sonia)  | Sophie Okonedo
Waiter  | Stephen Rea

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ "Celebration" at HaroldPinter.org: The Official Website of the International Playwright Harold Pinter

* v
* t
* e

Harold Pinter

Plays|

* The Room (1957)
* The Birthday Party (1957)
* The Dumb Waiter (1957)
* A Slight Ache (1958)
* The Hothouse (1958)
* The Caretaker (1959)
* A Night Out (1959)
* Night School (1960)
* The Collection (1961)
* The Lover (1962)
* Tea Party (1964)
* The Homecoming (1964)
* The Basement (1966)
* Landscape (1967)
* Silence (1968)
* Old Times (1970)
* No Man's Land (1974)
* Betrayal (1978)
* Family Voices (1980)
* A Kind of Alaska (1982)
* Victoria Station (1982)
* One for the Road (1984)
* Mountain Language (1988)
* Moonlight (1993)
* Ashes to Ashes (1996)
* Celebration (1999)
* Remembrance of Things Past (2000)

Dramatic sketches|

* Trouble in the Works (1959)
* Applicant (1959)
* Night (1969)
* Precisely (1983)

Screenplays|

* A Night Out (1961)
* The Caretaker (1963)
* The Servant (1963)
* The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
* The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
* Accident (1967)
* The Birthday Party (1968)
* The Homecoming (1969)
* Langrishe, Go Down (1970)
* The Go-Between (1971)
* The Last Tycoon (1976)
* The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
* Betrayal (1983)
* Turtle Diary (1984)
* Reunion (1989)
* The Comfort of Strangers (1990)
* The Handmaid's Tale (1990)
* The Trial (1993)
* The Dreaming Child (1997)
* The Tragedy of King Lear (2000)
* Sleuth (2007)

Related articles|

* Works
* Bibliography
* Characteristics
* Honours and awards
* Relationship with academia
* Harold Pinter Archive
* Harold Pinter and politics
* Art, Truth and Politics
* Pinter's People

This article on a 2000s play is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template