There’s a lot of this play that talks about the forces that control us in large and small ways,” whispers Jason Tyne as drumbeats echo through the Barber Theater Auditorium.

For Tyne, the director of The Birthday Party – the Theatre and Interpretation Center’s mainstage production this fall – the play “throws light” on the issues of control people have in the world.

“There’s a domestic story about the microcosm of control in our lives, and then there’s a macrocosm which represents the forces that come in and change things,” he says.

The Birthday Party, written by Harold Pinter, is set in a boarding house on a British seashore. Tyne says describing the play’s plot outline is complicated because much of the text itself is difficult to understand.

“Basically, a married couple owns a house and there’s a man living with them. Then two men come and stay with them,” Tyne says. He adds that most of the play is vague and that much of what is known can only be inferred from what characters say.

Tyne adds that within the play, there’s a tendency for characters to say one thing but later do something else.

“Pitner doesn’t answer any questions (for the audience),” Tyne says. “But the world doesn’t present answers.”

The contradictions presented between the characters’ actions and what they say is what makes the text “wonderful,” Tyne says.

“The play asks, ‘what are the things we know, what are the things we don’t know and how do we build the two?'” he says.

The Birthday Party will be performed at the Barber Theater for two weekends, starting Nov. 10. Tickets are $20, $10 for students.

– Marcy Miranda