''The Lover'' is a 1962 one-act play by

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that span ...

, originally written for television, but subsequently performed on stage. The play contrasts

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. ...

domesticity with sexual yearning. As with the drama of

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

, some of Pinter's plays support "serious" and "

comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

" interpretations; ''The Lover'' has been staged successfully both as an ironic comedy on the one hand and as a nervy drama on the other. As is often the case with Pinter, the play probably contains both.

Plot

Pinter leads the audience to believe that there are three characters in the play: the wife, the husband and the lover. But the lover who comes to call in the afternoons is revealed to be the husband adopting a role. He plays the lover for her: she plays the whore for him. As the play goes on the man (first as the lover and then as the husband) expresses a wish to stop the pretend adultery, to the dismay of the woman. Finally, the husband suddenly switches back to the role of the lover.

Original production

The play originally premiered in a 60 minute TV production directed by Joan Kemp-Welch for Associated-Rediffusion, transmitted by ITV on 28 March 1963. *Husband/Lover - Alan Badel *Wife/Mistress - Vivien Merchant *Milkman -

Michael Forrest Michael Forrest (July 1932 – 21 December 2004) was a Welsh television actor. He appeared in many British television series and films, which include ''Sir Francis Drake'', ''Z-Cars'', ''Danger Man'', '' The Saint'', '' The Avengers'', ''UFO'', ...

Original London stage production

It opened at the

Arts Theatre The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. History It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamber ...

on 18 September 1963 in a production by the author, as part of a double bill with his play ''The Dwarfs''; and closed on 5 October. *Richard - Scott Forbes *Sarah - Vivien Merchant *John - Michael Forrest ;Critical reception The ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' wrote "The little play works simply beautifully, like a perfectly adjusted piece of miniature machinery, except that machinery is dead and this play is scintillating alive."

References

External links

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D4DR
The Lover at Spanish Version Essay 1962 plays 1963 television plays Plays by Harold Pinter {{1960s-play-stub