Ariel Dorfman and Harold Pinter: Politics of the Periphery and Theater of the Metropolis

Authors

Stephen Gregory, University of New South Wales

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, the first paragraph of the essay follows:

The skeleton of this article is what looks like a string of contingencies. The Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman's first book was a lengthy study of Harold Pinter's first play The Room (1957).¹ Some twenty years later, Pinter would date his political reawakening from the same coup in Chile by General Pinochet in 1973 that would condemn Dorfman to a seventeen-year exile.² In the mid to late 1980's, Pinter wrote two brutally stark political plays about torture and repression.³ Shortly afterwards, Dorfman dedicated to Harold Pinter his own English translation of his play La muerte y la doncella (Death and the Maiden), set "in a country that is probably Chile, but could be any country that has given itself a democratic government just after a long period of dictatorship."⁴ In 1991, Pinter's sketch The New World Order was used as a curtain-raiser to the London production of Dorfman's play.⁵

Recommended Citation

Gregory, Stephen (1996) "Ariel Dorfman and Harold Pinter: Politics of the Periphery and Theater of the Metropolis," Comparative Drama: Vol. 30: Iss. 3, Article 2.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol30/iss3/2