Pinter: Big drama

London, Dec. 27: Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, who died on Christmas Eve at the age of 78, revealed in his last interview to The Guardian newspaper that his passion for cricket was as strong as ever.

The playwright, actor and author, whose works include The Birthday Party and The Caretaker, died after losing his battle with cancer.

The interview was conducted at Pinter’s north London home in late October. It was published just a day after his death was announced.

He once famously described cricket as the “greatest thing that God created on earth” which was better than sex. “Drama happens in big cricket matches. But also in small matches,” he said.

“When we play, my club, each thing that happens is dramatic: the gasps that follow a miss at slip, the anger of a lbw decision that is turned down. It is the same thing wherever you play, really.”

His comments came as actors in the West End paid an emotional tribute to Pinter after a charged performance of his play No Man’s Land.

It was the first time one of Pinter’s plays has been performed since the playwright’s death.

The play stars David Walliams, David Bradley and Michael Gambon. After the performance, Bradley told the audience: “I speak on behalf of actors all over the world who have had the pleasure of working with Harold Pinter.

“We have lost one of the greatest literary figures of all time. His loss is monumental and his influence cannot be calculated.

“He is often associated with menace and the dark side but could also be very funny and moving.” Bradley added: “His last note to this cast was ‘keep it light, fast and don’t forget the laughs’.

“As long as we have actors and theatre he will be performed forever.” After Bradley made his address, Gambon read a passage from the play which Pinter had asked him to read out at his funeral.

The production of No Man’s Land at the Duke of York’s Theatre has received critical acclaim, and the theatre was sold out for the performance.

Gambon plays Hirst, an aged, alcoholic, upper-class intellectual and, like many other Pinter plays, explores the fallibility of memory.

The veteran actor of stage and screen has performed in many of Pinter’s most famous plays, including the Caretaker in 2001 and Betrayal in 1978. Pinter was born in Hackney in 1930, the only son of immigrant Jews.

He turned down John Major’s offer of a knighthood and hit out at Tony Blair when Nato bombed Serbia. He labelled the invasion of Iraq as “a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the conception of international law”. Pinter began writing for the stage in the mid-1950s and The Room was published in 1957.