n/a

BBC Third Programme

1964

-

Methuen Drama, London >>>

1961

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Radio Sketch

-

6

1

-

Notes:
excerpt from the Hothouse

Synopsis:
Applying for a job, a young man is given a bizarre psychological test which leaves him gasping, blushing and rolling on the floor in shock.

Royal Court Theatre, London >>>

1996

-

Faber & Faber, London

1996

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Short Play

One Act

1

1

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
This dark, elegiac play, studded with brutally and swaggeringly funny jokes is one of Pinter's most haunting works' Daily Telegraph

Off Broadway, New York

1968

-

in "Tea Party & Other Plays" Methuen, London

1967

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Play

One Act

2

1

-

Notes:
Televised 1967

Synopsis:
The play, in the words of Edith Oliver, is "about a fussy, spinsterish bachelor whose carefully furnished basement flat is invaded late one night by his former roommate with a young girl in tow. Host is effusive in his welcome to former roommate, that is. Girl and former roommate strip naked and get into bed, as host, terribly rattled, continues to chatter. (The chatter is absolutely fine.) The intruders move in permanently, and soon the host's old pictures and bits of sculpture are replaced by a huge, bright, modern abstract. And there are other innovations. As the action progresses, the roles of lover and leftover switch back and forth, and the girl, like the old bum in The Caretaker, tries to set the men against each other and succeeds. There are scenes at a beach, in a cafe, and at a bogus deathbed, and there is a duel, which is fought on a dark stage with lighted broken bottles." In the end we are, it seems, back where we started. But not quite. We have seen, if only for a moment, the rather pathetic, tragic consequences

London

1978

-

Eyre Methuen, London

1978

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Drama 9 scenes

-

3

1

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
The play begins in the present, with the meeting of Emma and Jerry, whose adulterous affair of seven years ended two years earlier. Emma's marriage to Robert, Jerry's best friend, is now breaking up, and she needs someone to talk to. Their reminiscences reveal that Robert knew of their affair all along and, to Jerry's dismay, regarded it with total nonchalance. Thereafter, in a series of contiguous scenes, the play moves backward in time, from the end of the Emma-Jerry affair to its beginning, throwing into relief the little lies and oblique remarks which, in this timereverse, reveal more than direct statements, or overt actions, ever could.

Arts Theatre, Cambridge

1958

-

in "Birthday Party & Other Plays" Methuen, London

1960

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-

Play/Drama

4

2

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Goldberg and McCann arrive at a seaside boarding house where Meg and Petey live with their guest Stanley. They inquire about Stanley: we soon find out that McCann and Goldberg have a job to do. Learning it is his birthday they give Stanley a party at which Stanley is verbally bludgeoned into submission. The next day Stanley is removed. It is the collective impact of the dialogue which welds the seemingly inexplicable actions of Goldberg and McCann into a menacing whole.

Lyric Opera House, London

1959

-

Methuen Drama, London >>>

1961

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Revue Sketches

Show

-

2

-

Notes:
in One to Another

Synopsis:
Two old buddies, with little to do and nowhere to go, make small talk over soup in a crowded milk bar.

Arts Theatre Club, London

1960

-

Eyre Methuen, London

1960

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Comedy/Drama

Comedy

3

-

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
The New York Times comments: "An old bum receives shelter in a cluttered room of an abandoned house. His samaritan is a gentle young man whose kindness is so casual that he seems almost indifferent. Dirty, tattered, unkempt, itching and scratching, the tramp is by turns wheedling, truculent and full of bravado. . .He speaks the proud lingo of those who have untold resources awaiting them at near-by havens. He pronounces his meager phrases with the exaggerated precision of one unaccustomed to being heeded. He flails a fist into a palm or into the air with the belligerence of a fighter no one will ever corner. He associates himself with fastidious practices like soap as if they were his daily habit. He is very funny-at first. But the laughter shades increasingly into pity. Like a cornered animal, he cannot believe that anyone means to be kind to him. . .He hates foreigners. He trusts no one, and fears everyone. He alienates the two brothers who separately have offered him a job as caretaker of the premises

Almeida Theatre, London >>>

2000

-

-

-

-

Play/Drama

5

4

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
All the action takes place in a swish London restaurant where two coarse-grained strategy consultants are dining with their respective wives. At an adjacent table a banker and his wife banter over his recently discovered affair. But while Pinter gets a lot of laughs out of these gold-plated philistines, he also suggests they are displaced people. Shorn of any inherited values, they live in an eternal present of sex, food and conspicuous consumption. - Michael Billington, Guardian

London

1962

-

Samuel French, London

1962

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-

One Act

3

1

-

Notes:
Televised 1961

Synopsis:
As George Oppenheimer describes "The action of THE COLLECTION takes place on a divided stage, shared by a house in London's Belgravia and a flat in Chelsea. In the house live Harry, an older man, and Bill, a young dress designer. One night the life of Harry and Bill is distorted by an anonymous phone call, followed by a visit from a young man who refuses to leave his name. The visitor turns out to be James, owner of the flat where he lives with his wife, Stella, a decorative model, who has confessed to her husband that she had a one-night affair with Bill. James is obsessed with a desire to meet the man who had cuckolded him and when he does, a weird attraction-repulsion arise between the two young men. Harry discovers what is going on and in the end casts doubt on whether the affair ever took place and thereby reestablishes an uneasy status quo. All this is done with subtlety and good taste and affords a stimulating glimpse into the shadow abyss that lies between the true and the false, illusion and reality.

BBC Third Programme

1964

-

in "Stand" Newcastle vol 6, no 3

1963

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Radio Sketch

-

2

1

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

1959

-

in "Birthday Party & Other Plays" Methuen, London

1960

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-

One Act

2

-

-

Notes:
in German, Frankfurt 1959

Synopsis:
As the New York World-Telegram & Sun describes: "In the basement of a long-abandoned restaurant, two hired killers nervously await their next assignment. Barred from daylight and living public contact by the nature of their work, they expend their waiting time in bickering. So eerie is the situation that everything becomes comic, or grotesque, or both. Ben re-reading a newspaper and exclaiming in disbelief over the news items, Gus fussing with an offstage stove and offstage plumbing. Ben bludgeoning Gus into silence if he as much as mentions their work. Gus worrying that someone had slept in his bed. So then the ancient dumbwaiter comes to life, the suspense becomes almost unbearable-that expertly has Pinter put the nerves of his characters and audience on edge."

New Arts Theatre, London

1963

-

in "A Slight Ache & Other Plays" Methuen, London

1961

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-

One Act

3

-

-

Notes:
Broadcast 1960

Synopsis:
The play is concerned with three young men, Len, Pete and Mark, and the scene of action shifts back and forth between Len's house and Mark's. Sometimes all three come together, sometimes only two, and often Len is on stage alone. There are conversations and soliloquies filled with the brilliant convolutions of thought, the sudden flashes of truth which distinguish Pinter's unique style, with the mood ranging from calm introspection to explosive outpouring. Much of what is said hints at deeper thoughts left unspoken, and the sense of horror and alienation which often emerges is a searing indictment of our life and times. We meet, we talk, we tear at each other, but our insularity is seldom penetrated. We are together but alone, as though life were a mirror which reflects only our own image. But there is humor too, again distinctively Pinteresque in its startling swings from the direct to the illusive.

London

1978

-

Methuen Drama, London >>>

1963

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Short Play

One Act

1

-

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
short prose piece

Lytlelton Theatre, National Theatre, London >>>

1981

Platform Performance by the NT

Next Editions

1981

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-

One Act

2

1

-

Notes:
broadcast 1981, in Other Places

Synopsis:
a series of parallel monologues between a mother and son in the form of letters probably written but never mailed, in which the facade of a happy family gradually disintegrates into a cauldron of recrimination.

Granada TV

1989

-

Faber & Faber, London

1989

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T.V. Play

-

9

9

-

Notes:
novel by Elizabeth Bowen

Synopsis:
London is at war, couple are in love but a mysterious stranger intervenes.

Cardiff

1965

-

Methuen Drama, London >>>

1965

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-

Play/Drama

5

1

-

Notes:
Cardiff March 26, London June 3

Synopsis:
Eldest son returns to find his repeatability has made him a misfit amongst the squalor and amorality.

London

1980

-

Eyre Methuen, London

1980

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Black Comedy

Comedy

6

1

-

Notes:
written 1958

Synopsis:
The scene is a government institution, possibly mental or medical and presumably penal, where the inmates are kept behind locked gates and are referred to by number rather than name. In charge is Roote, a pompous ex-colonel who is surely as psychologically disturbed as his charges, and who is abetted by two main lackeys: the quietly sinister Gibbs and a seedy alcoholic appropriately named Lush. There is also the sexy Miss Cutts, whose favors appear to be shared by the various staff members. Among the matters at issue are the disturbing fact that one of the patients has given birth to a baby, though no one has filed an official report about having had sex with her and also the need for Roote to pull himself together to address the understaff Christmas party. In the final essence these bureaucratic crises hardly matter, however, as the play ends as ominously as it began, with a burst of lethal violence which leaves only one survivor to search for answers and, perhaps, to accept responsibility for the chaos which ensues.

BBC Third Programme

1964

-

in "Plays 3" Faber, London

1991

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Radio Sketch

-

2

-

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
During an interview, the proprietor of a pornographic book store confides that the "security police" have dossiers on all his customers-and so does he. After all, they're a pack of Communists.

London

1982

-

Methuen Drama, London >>>

1982

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Drama

One Act

1

2

-

Notes:
in Other Places

Synopsis:
a masterly study of a middle-aged woman waking up after 30 years passed in a coma induced by sleeping sickness. In her mind she is still 16, and her attempts to fathom the changed world into which she re-emerges is not only poignant and emotionally charged but, in the end, devastatingly brilliant theatre as well.

Aldwych Theatre, London >>>

1969

-

Pendragon Press

1968

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-

One Act

1

1

-

Notes:
Broadcast 1968

Synopsis:
a middle aged couple, housekeeper and chauffeur sit in the huge bare kitchen of a country house pursuing their own thoughts aloud in a ghastly semblance of conversation.

Apollo Theatre, London

1959

-

in "A Slight Ache & Other Plays" Methuen, London

1961

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Revue Sketches

Show

2

-

-

Notes:
in Pieces of Eight

Synopsis:
A coffee stall. The attendant and an old newspaper seller chat idly about a variety of pointless topics which probably mean little to either of them.

Arts Theatre Club, London

1963

-

in "The Collection & The Lover" Methuen, London

1963

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-

One Act

2

1

-

Notes:
Televised 1963

Synopsis:
As the New York Herald-Tribune outlines "A husband goes to his office politely asking if his wife's lover will be coming today. She murmurs 'Mmmm,' and suggest he not return before six. In order not to return before six he will no doubt visit a prostitute. A competition is glossily established. When the lover does come, he is the husband, which is not surprising. The kind of sex-play follows that suggests this is the necessary titillation, and the necessary release of hostility, between a man who means to be master of the house and a wife who means to be both wife and mistress, whatever the house may be. But there is a flaw in the accommodation. The lover is weary of his mistress; she is no longer particularly appetizing. By the time he returns, as husband, in the evening, his wife is still disturbed by the news. The performance of the afternoon has begun to carry over into the reality (or pretense) of the evening. Suddenly the husband is not quite husband, diffident over his drink.

-

1969

-

in "Plays 3" Faber, London

1991

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Monologue

Play/Drama

1

-

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:

London

1973

-

Covent Garden Press

1973

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-

One Act

1

-

-

Notes:
Televised 1973

Synopsis:
Woolf, in a seedy room, talks to the empty chair in which he is seated.

Almeida Theatre, London >>>

1993

-

Faber & Faber, London

1993

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-

Play/Drama

4

2

1g

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
In a dark space you can't measure, a once visceral father lies on his deathbed, looking over his life, his youth, loves, lusts and betrayals of his wife. At the same time, in another bedroom, somewhere in the same space, the man's two sons intellectually, clinically and conspiratorially speak of their relationship with their father. Side-stepping their estrangement from him, they rationalize their love-hate relationship with him and defend the distance they are incapable of closing, even when their mother calls them home. In contrast to these closed sons, is the man's daughter, the baby sister, who refuses the dourness and bridges the space between the light and dark, youth and age, and death and life.

London

1988

-

Faber & Faber, London

1988

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4 brief scenes

One Act

5

2

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Furthering the theme of political consciousness expressed so forcefully and eloquently in his earlier play ONE FOR THE ROAD, the author's present play takes place in an anonymous country where individual liberties have been forfeited to the state. Set in a prison where the inmates are forbidden to speak their own language, the play is comprised of four terse, arresting scenes which make masterful use of nuance and subtle understatement (with sudden bursts of violence) to create an overwhelming sense of terror and shocking futility. In one scene uniformed officers taunt and belittle the women who have come to visit their men, who are political prisoners; in another a mother and son are allowed to speak only in "the language of the capital," which they do not know; in the third scene a young woman accidentally sees a guard holding a limp, tortured man whom she knows to be her husband; and, in the final scene the old woman reunited with her bloody, trembling son and, though told she may now speak.

Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London >>>

1991

-

in "Granata" No 37

1991

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-

Ten Min

3

-

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Two men stand above a third-tied and blindfolded-talking to each other, but addressing the third man. The insinuations and threats about what will become of-and what will be done to-this third man, represent the forces in today's world which stifle freedom in its many forms. The fear and uncertainty conveyed by this short piece powerfully reminds us that the evils of the world will always try to conquer us if we don't heed the warnings.

Hampstead Theatre, London, EUR >>>

1969

-

in "Landscape & Silence" Methuen, London

1969

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Short dialogue

One Act

1

1

-

Notes:
Originally presented as one of eight plays under the title "We Who Are About To. . ." at the Hampstead Theatre Club on February 6th 1969, which was subsequently presented as "Mixed Doubles" at the Comedy Theatre, London on April 9th 1969

Synopsis:
long married couple cast their minds back to their first meeting.

Dublin

1961

-

in "A Slight Ache & Other Plays" Methuen, London

1961

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Play

One Act

10

5

-

Notes:
broadcast 1960; part of triple bill "Counterpoint"

Synopsis:
Living at home with his widowed, domineering mother, Albert is a meek, hen-pecked fellow for whom the invitation to an office party is a rare and welcome chance for a bit of fun. With his mother's exhortations to behave himself ringing in his ears (and his dinner in the oven lest he lose his nerve and turn back home), Albert meets his friends and goes off to the party. Once there, he struggles to overcome his shyness and join in the small talk, but when he is falsely accused of pinching a girl the resulting furor is more than he can cope with. Slinking home he is confronted with maternal diatribe which is, for poor Albert, the last straw. In a rage he rushes back into the London night and, picking up a girl at a coffee stand, goes with her to her room. But when they are alone the girl rambles on incessantly about what a lady she really is and Albert, perhaps sensing in her the personification of all the prattling women in the world, turns on her vindictively and annihilates her seamy and pathetic pretensions.

Associated Rediffussion

1960

-

in "Tea Party & Other Plays" Methuen, London

1967

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T.V. Play

-

3

3

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
man leaves jail and returns home to find his two aunts have let his room.

London

1975

-

Eyre Methuen, London

1975

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