Harold Pinter wins Nobel Prize in Literature

British playwright, Harold Pinter, won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature today. Known for such plays as The Birthday Party and The Caretaker, Harold Pinter is often grouped among theater of the absurd playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, with whom he was friends.

The Swedish Academy said of Pinter that he "restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles."