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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/birthday_party_film_4565.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:A poster for the 1968 film adaptation, which starred Creator/RobertShaw and Creator/PatrickMagee and was directed by Creator/WilliamFriedkin.]]
3
4''The Birthday Party'' is a 1950s "Comedy of Menace" written by Creator/HaroldPinter. It concerns a boarding house on UsefulNotes/TheGreatBritishSeaside run by Mr and Mrs Bowles, a HappilyMarried couple, and their single tenant, Stanley Weber, a former concert pianist who seems to have come from nowhere. Life trudges by slowly until the annoucement of two guests arriving, two men who seem to have some sort of link with Stanley's MysteriousPast.
5
6Nothing to do with Music/NickCave's [[Music/TheBirthdayParty original band]].
7
8----
9!!Tropes:
10* AffablyEvil: Goldberg
11* AmbiguousEnding: It's not clear what Goldberg and [=McCann=]'s organization intends to do to/with Stanley after they take him away. One possibility is that he's eventually killed, another is that he's brainwashed into being a loyal member of the organization again. In either scenario, it's something of a DownerEnding in that the sinister organization achieved its aims largely unopposed.
12* AndIMustScream: Stanley tries to scream in fear and rage as he's taken away by Goldberg and [=McCann=], but he's so traumatized by the implied brainwashing and torture that he hardly makes any sound at all.
13* BerserkButton:
14** Do not call Goldberg "Simey." This may be linked to the fact that it was his mother's nickname for him.
15** [=McCann=] has a habit of tearing newspapers into strips. When Stanley touches them he goes from being TheQuietOne to SuddenlyShouting.
16* BlindWithoutEm: Stanley losing his glasses is a major plot point.
17* BrainsAndBrawn: The smaller, older Goldberg does most of the talking while interrogating/tormenting Stanley, while [=McCann=] doesn't say much but is much more physically imposing.
18** Goldberg isn't specified in the script as being smaller than [=McCann=]. When Harold Pinter played him in a TV adaptation of the play in the 1980s, he towered over the rest of the cast, especially Kenneth Cranham as Stanley and Colin Blakely as [=McCann=]. But he is implied to be the brains of the operation, while [=McCann=] is the muscle.
19* CloudCuckoolander: Meg. So much.
20* DarkAndTroubledPast: It's implied that Stanley has some connection to Goldberg and [=McCann=]'s shady organization. His claims about his past career as a concert pianist are often self-contradictory.
21* TheDreaded: Goldberg. Hearing that he is coming sends Stanley into HeroicBSOD mode.
22* EmptyShell: Stanley is so traumatized by whatever he's subjected to in his room that he can't even speak as he's taken away.
23* EyeScream: [[spoiler: Offscreen, Stanley tries to insert his broken glasses into his eyes.]]
24* GoodCopBadCop: The superficially friendly, physically frail and older Goldberg is the "good cop" to the larger, younger, and quietly menacing [=McCann's=] "bad cop" when interrogating and tormenting Stanley.
25* GroinAttack: Stanley defends himself against Goldberg by kicking him in the groin before being subdued by the much more physically imposing [=McCann=].
26* HaveAGayOldTime: "Give me a blow!"
27* KickTheDog: Most of Stanley's scenes with Meg have at least one case of this.
28* MultipleChoicePast: Most of the characters.
29* TheMunchausen: Goldberg again, Stanley also to some extent.
30* NothingIsScarier: We never see what Goldberg and [=McCann=] do to Stanley in his room to break his spirit, but it must have been something horrible since not only is Stanley reduced to a catatonic state, Goldberg himself is shown to be exhausted and traumatized by the events.
31* {{Oireland}}: [=McCann's=] background hints strongly at this.
32* OnlySaneMan: Petey Bowles, but he is too scared to act.
33* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Goldberg, to great extent
34* TakeOurWordForIt: Whatever happens to Stanley. It visibly shakes [=McCann=] and leaves Goldberg drained.
35* TheUnseen: The mysterious Monty.
36* VillainousBSOD: After Stanley's offscreen torture.
37* WordSaladHorror: Goldberg and [=McCann=] torment Stanley with strange non-sequiturs (at one point asking "Why did the chicken cross the road" out of the blue).

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