Harold Pinter Had Carefully Planned His Burial

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oi-Staff

By Staff

Saturday, January 3, 2009, 11:30

Harold Pinter, one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century, had already scripted how his funeral should be held before he died.

The dramatist's burial on Tuesday took place in the same way he had planned. Gathered at Kensal Green Cemetery in north London, about 50 mourners heard a number of readings and poems that Pinter had chosen to mark his own passing. Strange but true.

According to reports, there was no religious minister to console his family that he had passed into another life. Attending the burial were Pinter's second wife, the biographer Lady Antonia Fraser, and fellow playwright . However, Pinter's only son Daniel Brand, did not attend the burial. He never forgave his father for leaving his mother Vivien Merchant for Lady Antonia in the mid 1970's.

Sir Michael Gambon, 68, who acted in many of Pinter's productions, opened the series of grave-side readings with an extract from his play No Man's Land.

While addressing the mourners, Sir Michael recited a passage from No Man's Land. "Allow the love of the good ghost. They possess all that emotion trapped. Bow to it. It will assuredly never release them, but who knows what relief it may give to them, who knows how they may quicken in their chains, in their glass jars?" the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

Pinter, aged 78, died on Christmas Eve, after a long battle with cancer. He had perhaps realised that his fight was drawing to a close, which is why he asked Sir Michael to read the lines at his funeral about three months ago.

Speaking about the funeral arrangements, Matthew 'Harry' Burton, who worked with Pinter and also shared his great passion cricket, said: "He seems to have given very precise instructions. I believe the funeral will be carried out to his instructions."

The mourners finally bade goodbye to the man who was regarded as one of the most important playwrights of the post-war era. Pinter once said, "When you can't write, you feel as if you've been banished from yourself" he once said. Thank god he could write, and that we are left with enough theatrical treasures for generations to come.

Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005.