The nerdy, bizarre figure of Stanley in Harold Pinter’s ‘The Birthday Party’ is one of those iconic figures of twentieth century theatre, similar to Stanley Kowalski in Tenessee Williams ‘Streetcar named Desire’. Both of these characters go through harrowing journeys.
Stanley, a nerdy but bright thirties something guy, has done something terribly wrong, and is hiding in the hovel of a boarding house run by Meg and Petey.
Stanley carries on with the couple like a spoilt brat. His life is fairly miserable but bearable.
That is, until two rather creepy guys, Goldberg and McCann, take up lodging at Meg’s boarding house. Stanley freezes when he sees them. They know something about his sordid past. From then on, life is never the same.

Pinter’s ‘Birthday Party’ is not one of my favorite plays,- it is such a dark and depressing play.
Still, there is no doubting its power. This was a searing study of guilt and recrimination.
The strongest aspect of Pinter’s play was some darkly startling scenes…Stanley receiving a tin drum and banging away at it furiously…the scenes of intimidation as Goldberg and McCann make Stanley feel so small as they drill away at his conscience.
‘The Birthday Party’ was put on as part of Company B’s B Sharp program, and produced by Shaft productions.
Robert Kennedy directed the production well and the cast performed strongly. Darren Weller played the prized role of Stanley- the most intense of the roles- and he gave a strong performance. Linal Haft played Golberg and Sam Haft played McCann.