Playwrights HAROLD PINTER and UTUY TATANG SONTANI

HAROLD PINTER & UTUY TATANG SONTANI, were renowned and established modern playwrights in the late fifties.

Harold Pinter borned in Heckney, London (Oct 1930 – Dec 2008) an English Nobel Laurete: playwright, screen writer, actor, director, political activist and President of The Central School Of Speech & Drama, University Of London. Among his known plays: THE ROOM, THE DUMB WAITER and THE BIRTHDAY PARTY.

Utuy Tatang Sontani ( 1920 – 1979 ) borned at Cianjur, Indonesia and died in Moscow was Sastrawan Sunda Angkatan 45 of Indonesia. Among his famous play were: Awal Dan Mira (1952), Sayang Ada Orang Lain (1954) and Si Kebayan (1959). His writings had been translated in various languages including Russian, Tagalog, Mandarin and English.

I was tasked to produce and direct Utuy Tatang’s SAYANG ADA ORANG LAIN during my final college year in 1962 - a royal command performance attended by The Sultan of Perak - for the Silver Jublee Celebration Of MPSI. The other production was my very own stageplay IBU KANDUNG directed by a collegue.

I was very much influenced by Utuy’s technique of play writing treatments for the stage, in many of my early writings: PUTERI MALISA RATU BERTUAH (Malaysia Drama Awards Ministry of Culture Singapore 1962), MEMBURU BULAN SABIT (staged in Kuala Trengganu 1964 & published by Pustaka Pendidikan 1968, later produced for television by Malaysian renown TV drama producer Aziz Wok (Dato’) and KEMBALI KEPERIBADI SENDIRI (DBP awards 1968) and a novella RUMAH KUNING (published by Utusan Melayu 1969).

Harold Pinter’s triller THE DUMB WAITER was specially selected for my drama major final production at the BBC TV and Film Production Course, London in 1973. THE DUMB WAITER was my tv drama production debut with professional casts and production crews. It was a daunting and challenging task for a young Malaysian working in British Studio with BBC’s professional crew. The experiences gained in Programme Planning, Casting, Rehearsals and the studio production itself was worth a 1000 lecturer room hours.

I became an ardent follower of Utuy and Herold, very much influenced by their stage writings techniques, their well chosen and meaningful dialogues, the uniqueness of each of their story characters and the prearranged ‘obstacles’ that moves the story forward. Most of their play structures followed a perfect paradigm i.e The Premise, The Confrontation, The Resolution. It hooks you as well as the audience right from the opening scene.

On my return home to Malaysia I was made a fully fledged TV Drama/Film Producer Director, a Senior Drama Producer and Head of Drama RTM for more than 2 decades. I chanced in designing, producing and directing RTM Drama Series, Sitcoms, Telemovies and a Feature Film: series Potrait Pekerti, Drama Minggu Ini, Penggung RTM (Made for TV movies), OPAH, ANJANG AKI, TOK PERAK, also sitcom SANTAN BERLADA, FLAT PERSEKUTUAN and DAYANG SUHANA (Feature Movie).
Little did I realised, later in life I specialized myself in producing, directing and writing of stage plays, teleplays and screen plays as well served as a fully fledged Television Drama/Film Producer Director for more than 20 years of my earlier career in RTM (1966-1996). Presently I am managing my very own production house and advertising company specializing in multi media design and productions.

For whatever it was, Harold Pinter and Utuy Tatang Sontani creative approach and style of 'storytelling' somehow influenced me in most my early creative persuits.