00:02Fifty years ago, the British Theatre witnessed a debut that was to influence the world of plays and cinema forever.
00:10The event was the first performance of a new play by an unknown author.
00:15What were you looking for? The man who runs the house?
00:18The title of the play was The Room.
00:21The landlord, trying to get up with the landlord.
00:23The author's name was Harold Pinter.
00:27Actor, poet, director, screenwriter and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
00:34Today, Pinter's 29 plays and 19 filmed screenplays are consistently performed and screened all over the world.
00:44But what is it like to work with Pinter?
00:48I found working in rehearsals with actors terrific.
00:53I think they're a great body of people.
00:57I invited him to rehearse several scenes from his plays with a group of actors.
01:03I appreciate if more time were taken about the text.
01:06If the text isn't right, it certainly hits the author, I can tell you that.
01:14I don't want to appear like a stern headmaster.
01:18Very nicely put.
01:20A pause could be that.
01:25It's just a moment's breath, a moment's thought, a moment's uncertainty perhaps.
01:31Silence is when nobody knows quite how to deal with what has just been said.
01:37But I think these terms, silence and pause, have been taken much too far.
01:44My wife calls them the curse of Pinter.
01:50That's it's a moment, isn't it?
01:52You can't see it.
01:53These terms are my best for my students.
01:53It's been a big mess.
01:54Things are my best.
01:54The first time I look into something,
01:54It's been a little bit of a big joke.
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