14/10/11 Intoduction to Harold Pinter, and The Theatre of the Absurd

• As a stimulus to the Theatre of the Absurd we watched a clip of "Bottom" This is strange play like performance. The characters are all based in one room; we never see what their character is like out side this room. The two characters appear to be close friends, maybe brothers; as they act like children together. In the clip they were making a home movie, like from "You've been framed." The character filming was shooting the other with darts and encouraging the other to set him self on fire, making it all look like an accident. The clip was completely childish but comical all the same.
• We then watched a presentation on Theatre of the Absurd.

We then watched the first couple of scenes of "Caretaker" by Harold Pinter, and made observations.

• There is hardly any background music
• You can hear sound that are supposed to be sutle really loudly e.g. Keys, Light switches and foot steps.
• The business man befriends a tramp; this wouldn't happen in real life.
• There are loads of pauses.
• Slow movement.
• The tramp is racist, could be something to do with the war?
• The business man sleeps in an attic, no normal?
• They don't talk about talk about themselves, they talk about inanimate objects. There is soo much pointless dialogue.
• Random beeps.