Remembrance of Things Past (play)
Encyclopedia
Remembrance of Things Past is the 2000 collaborative stage adaptation by Harold Pinter
and director Di Trevis
of Harold Pinter's as-yet unproduced The Proust Screenplay (1977), a screen adaptation of À la recherche du temps perdu
, the seven-volume novel by Marcel Proust
.
In November 2000, the play premiered at the Royal National Theatre
, in London
, under the direction of Trevis, who also produced and directed it with a student cast at the Victorian College of the Arts
Drama School, in Melbourne, Australia, in October 2002. There also were foreign-language productions of the play in Denmark
and Slovenia
in 2004.
's magnum opus
À la recherche du temps perdu
for a film commissioned by the late director Joseph Losey
to be directed by Losey (Billington, Harold Pinter 224–330). According to Pinter in conversation with Jonathan Croall and with Michael Billington
, his official biographer, Losey and Pinter were not able to find the financing for the film and there were unsurmountable casting difficulties ; yet, after a year's work and other cultural complications pertaining to negotiations about permission to adapt Proust's great work from principals in France, Pinter finished his first draft of the screenplay in November 1972 (Billington, Harold Pinter 224–330). The Proust Screenplay was published first by Grove Press
in 1977 and by Faber and Faber
in 1978 (Baker and Ross 115-18).
The screenplay, in Billington's view "a masterpiece ... [which] captures Proust's merciless social comedy" (Harold Pinter 230), was eventually published by Grove Press in both hardback and paperback in 1977 and by Eyre Methuen in hardback in 1978 (Baker and Ross 115–18). Pinter's unpublished manuscripts for both the screenplay and the play are held in The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library
, which the BL
acquired permanently in December 2007 and planned to finish cataloguing in late 2008; the catalogue went online on 2 February 2009 and was first accessible the following day.
Michael Bakewell
adapted Pinter's screenplay into a radio play also titled The Proust Screenplay directed by Ned Chaillet
and featuring Pinter as narrator, broadcast on BBC Radio 3
on 31 December 1995 and as an extended repeat on 11 May 1997.
on 23 November 2000 and ran there through 7 February 2001, was directed by Di Trevis and starred Sebastian Harcombe (Marcel), Duncan Bell
(Charles Swann), David Rintoul
(Charlus), and the late Fritha Goodey
(Odette de Crecy). Designed by Alison Chitty
, the production included music by Dominic Muldowney
, lighting designed by Ben Ormerod, and movement directed by choreographer Jack Murphy.
The production transferred to the Olivier Theatre, National Theatre
, running from 23 February until 4 April 2001.
, 2005. ISBN 0-7123-4885-9 (10). New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2005. ISBN 1594561564 (10).
Billington, Michael
. Harold Pinter. 1996. 2nd rev. ed. London: Faber and Faber, 2007. ISBN 9780571234769 (13). (Rev. and enl. ed. of The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. ISBN 0571171036 [10].)
Gale, Steven H., and Christopher Hudgins. "The Harold Pinter Archives II: A Description of the Filmscript Materials in the Archive in the British Library". The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1995 and 1996. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1997. 101-42. (Follows up article by Merritt listed below; does not include an updated version of Merritt's "Appendix"; focuses on manuscript materials relating to Pinter's screenplays.)
Merritt, Susan Hollis. "The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library". The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1994. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1994. 14-53. (Includes an Appendix listing the holdings of the Archive through 64 boxes, including the unpublished manuscripts pertaining to The Proust Screenplay: À la recherche du temps perdu, adapt. by Pinter, and Remembrance of Things Past, adapt. collaboratively from Pinter's The Proust Screenplay, by Pinter and Di Trevis.)
Pinter, Harold
. The Proust Screenplay: À la recherche du temps perdu. New York: Grove Press
(Dist. Random House
), 1977. ISBN 0394422023 (10). London: Faber and Faber
, 1978. ISBN 041338960X (10). (Adapt. for the screen of the 7-vol. novel by Marcel Proust
.)
–––, and Di Trevis
. Remembrance of Things Past. London: Faber and Faber
, 2000. ISBN 057120760X (10). ISBN 9780571207602 (13). (Adapt. for the stage of The Proust Screenplay: À la recherche du temps perdu, by Harold Pinter.)
–––, and Jonathan Croall. "Time Present and Time Past". National Theatre Official Website. Spring 2001. Accessed 28 Sept. 2008. ("Harold Pinter talks to Jonathan Croall about the daunting task of adapting Marcel Proust's masterpiece for the theatre.")
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
and director Di Trevis
Di Trevis
Diane Trevis is an English theatre director. She was born in Birmingham and educated at Sussex University. After eight years as an actress, she began directing in 1981....
of Harold Pinter's as-yet unproduced The Proust Screenplay (1977), a screen adaptation of À la recherche du temps perdu
In Search of Lost Time
In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its considerable length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine." The novel is widely...
, the seven-volume novel by Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
.
In November 2000, the play premiered at the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, under the direction of Trevis, who also produced and directed it with a student cast at the Victorian College of the Arts
Victorian College of the Arts
The Faculty of the VCA and Music is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria . VCAM is located near the Melbourne central business district, on two campuses, one - the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, and the other - the...
Drama School, in Melbourne, Australia, in October 2002. There also were foreign-language productions of the play in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
in 2004.
The Proust Screenplay
In writing The Proust Screenplay, Pinter adapted the seven volumes of Marcel ProustMarcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
's magnum opus
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
À la recherche du temps perdu
In Search of Lost Time
In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its considerable length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine." The novel is widely...
for a film commissioned by the late director Joseph Losey
Joseph Losey
Joseph Walton Losey was an American theater and film director. After studying in Germany with Bertolt Brecht, Losey returned to the United States, eventually making his way to Hollywood...
to be directed by Losey (Billington, Harold Pinter 224–330). According to Pinter in conversation with Jonathan Croall and with Michael Billington
Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised...
, his official biographer, Losey and Pinter were not able to find the financing for the film and there were unsurmountable casting difficulties ; yet, after a year's work and other cultural complications pertaining to negotiations about permission to adapt Proust's great work from principals in France, Pinter finished his first draft of the screenplay in November 1972 (Billington, Harold Pinter 224–330). The Proust Screenplay was published first by Grove Press
Grove Press
Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its...
in 1977 and by Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
in 1978 (Baker and Ross 115-18).
The screenplay, in Billington's view "a masterpiece ... [which] captures Proust's merciless social comedy" (Harold Pinter 230), was eventually published by Grove Press in both hardback and paperback in 1977 and by Eyre Methuen in hardback in 1978 (Baker and Ross 115–18). Pinter's unpublished manuscripts for both the screenplay and the play are held in The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library
The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library
The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library is the literary archive of Harold Pinter, which Pinter had first placed "on permanent loan" in the British Library in September 1993 and which became a permanent acquisition in December 2007.-Acquisition:...
, which the BL
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
acquired permanently in December 2007 and planned to finish cataloguing in late 2008; the catalogue went online on 2 February 2009 and was first accessible the following day.
Michael Bakewell
Michael Bakewell
Michael Bakewell is a British television producer. He is best known for his work during the 1960s, when he was the first Head of Plays at the BBC after Sydney Newman divided the drama department into separate series, serials and plays divisions in 1963...
adapted Pinter's screenplay into a radio play also titled The Proust Screenplay directed by Ned Chaillet
Ned Chaillet
Edward William "Ned" Chaillet, III is a radio drama producer and director, writer and journalist.Ned Chaillet, American by birth, was born in Boston, Mass. but is a "native of Washington" according to the New York Times. He has lived in Britain since 1973.His newspaper career began at the...
and featuring Pinter as narrator, broadcast on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
on 31 December 1995 and as an extended repeat on 11 May 1997.
Original Production
The stage version, which premiered at the Cottesloe Theatre, National TheatreRoyal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
on 23 November 2000 and ran there through 7 February 2001, was directed by Di Trevis and starred Sebastian Harcombe (Marcel), Duncan Bell
Duncan Bell (actor)
Duncan Bell is a Scottish stage and screen actor.In September 2001 he played Sergeant Dennis Merton in Britain's biggest TV drama series Heartbeat...
(Charles Swann), David Rintoul
David Rintoul
David Rintoul is a stage and television actor.Rintoul was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied at Edinburgh University and won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London....
(Charlus), and the late Fritha Goodey
Fritha Goodey
Fritha Jane Goodey was a British stage, radio and film actress probably best known stateside for her performance in the film About a Boy , in which she played one of Hugh Grant's character's former girlfriends....
(Odette de Crecy). Designed by Alison Chitty
Alison Chitty
Alison Chitty OBE is an Olivier Award winning production designer and set and costume designer, known for her collaborations with Mike Leigh, Francesca Zambello and Sir Peter Hall. She is also the Director of the Motley Theatre Design Course, a successor to Motley Theatre Design Group...
, the production included music by Dominic Muldowney
Dominic Muldowney
Dominic Muldowney is a British composer.-Biography:He studied at the universities of Southampton and York , and took private lessons with Harrison Birtwistle. From 1974 to 1976 he was composer-in-residence to the Southern Arts Association...
, lighting designed by Ben Ormerod, and movement directed by choreographer Jack Murphy.
The production transferred to the Olivier Theatre, National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, running from 23 February until 4 April 2001.
Works cited and further reading
Baker, William, and John C. Ross, comp. Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History. London: British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, 2005. ISBN 0-7123-4885-9 (10). New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2005. ISBN 1594561564 (10).
Billington, Michael
Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised...
. Harold Pinter. 1996. 2nd rev. ed. London: Faber and Faber, 2007. ISBN 9780571234769 (13). (Rev. and enl. ed. of The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. ISBN 0571171036 [10].)
Gale, Steven H., and Christopher Hudgins. "The Harold Pinter Archives II: A Description of the Filmscript Materials in the Archive in the British Library". The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1995 and 1996. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1997. 101-42. (Follows up article by Merritt listed below; does not include an updated version of Merritt's "Appendix"; focuses on manuscript materials relating to Pinter's screenplays.)
Merritt, Susan Hollis. "The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library". The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1994. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1994. 14-53. (Includes an Appendix listing the holdings of the Archive through 64 boxes, including the unpublished manuscripts pertaining to The Proust Screenplay: À la recherche du temps perdu, adapt. by Pinter, and Remembrance of Things Past, adapt. collaboratively from Pinter's The Proust Screenplay, by Pinter and Di Trevis.)
Pinter, Harold
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
. The Proust Screenplay: À la recherche du temps perdu. New York: Grove Press
Grove Press
Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its...
(Dist. Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
), 1977. ISBN 0394422023 (10). London: Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
, 1978. ISBN 041338960X (10). (Adapt. for the screen of the 7-vol. novel by Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
.)
–––, and Di Trevis
Di Trevis
Diane Trevis is an English theatre director. She was born in Birmingham and educated at Sussex University. After eight years as an actress, she began directing in 1981....
. Remembrance of Things Past. London: Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
, 2000. ISBN 057120760X (10). ISBN 9780571207602 (13). (Adapt. for the stage of The Proust Screenplay: À la recherche du temps perdu, by Harold Pinter.)
–––, and Jonathan Croall. "Time Present and Time Past". National Theatre Official Website. Spring 2001. Accessed 28 Sept. 2008. ("Harold Pinter talks to Jonathan Croall about the daunting task of adapting Marcel Proust's masterpiece for the theatre.")
External links
- Remembrance of Things Past at HaroldPinter.org, Harold PinterHarold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
's official Website. - Remembrance of Things Past – Official Website of the original production at the Cottesloe Theatre, Royal National TheatreRoyal National TheatreThe Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
(NT)