The Lover

Synopsis

The Lover was initially written by Pinter as a television play and was broadcast in 1963 but was quickly moved to the stage in September of the same year in a production directed by the author. A commuter heads to the city from Windsor every morning and heads home every night. However, the illusion of respectability is shattered when his wife calmly tells him about the wild lover she entertains in the afternoons. One of Pinter's most direct exercises, the play is a darkly comic tale of the necessity and danger of fantasy.

Our Review:

30 January 2008

The last time these two short early plays of Harold Pinter were seen in London, they were presented on a triple bill at the Donmar Warehouse with a third item, A Kind of Alaska, which placed the brutal comedy and blatant sexiness of The Lover and The Collection into sharper relief.

On their own, the two plays, even in this fine production by Jamie Lloyd, betray their origins as television pieces. In The Lover, the time jumps in the narrative of a married couple spicing up their relationship with erotic “let’s pretend” are not really effective as a theatrical device, while The Collection does not gain from its rapid switch of locations behind a proscenium arch.

Still, Lloyd’s direction smoothes over the bumps with considerable finesse and never misses a beat in its musical delivery of the texts. And in Gina McKee, Pinter has an ideal performe...

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Latest User Review

James - 10 April 2008:

God oh God!! Let me say I am a big fan of Harold Pinter, I am firm in the belief that he is possibly the greatest living playwright. This production of his brilliant short plays was slow, labourius and definately not worth the price of the ticket. Richard Coyle seemed uncomfortable and had a very dodgy posh accent. Maybe I saw an off night but I saw no chemistry in the Lover and the Collection, which isnt a long play, seemed like it lasted two hours. Dull....

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