''A Night Out'' is a play written by

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

in 1959. Albert Stokes, a loner in his late twenties lives with his emotionally suffocating mother and works in an office. After being falsely accused of groping a female at an office party, he wanders the streets until he meets a girl, who invites him to her flat, where he responds to her overtures by angrily demeaning her. Then he returns home to his mother. The play had its first performance on the

BBC Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...

on 1 March 1960, with Pinter's acting-school classmate and friend Barry Foster as Albert Stokes,

as Seeley, and

Vivien Merchant Ada Brand Thomson (22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982), known professionally as Vivien Merchant, was an English actress. She began her career in 1942, and became known for dramatic roles on stage and in films. In 1956 she married the playwright Ha ...

, Pinter's first wife, as the Girl. (Full production details and "Radio Review" accessible at www.haroldpinter.org.) Its performance on television a month later, on 24 April 1960, was Pinter's first big success as a playwright in that medium. As presented on ABC Weekend TV's '' Armchair Theatre'', it was viewed by 6.4 million households, at that time a record for a single television drama. Some other ABC production details (full cast and credits accessible at BFI Screenonline): *Director Philip Saville *Producer

Sydney Newman Sydney Cecil Newman (; April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian producer and screenwriter who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, he was app ...

*Designer Assheton Gorton ;Cast * Tom Bell – Albert Stokes *

Madge Ryan Madge Winifred Ryan (8 January 1919 – 9 January 1994) was an Australian actress, known for her stage and film roles in the United Kingdom, including London stage productions of ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' (1964), ''Philadelphia, Here I Come'' ...

– Mrs Stokes *

(as David Baron) – Seeley *

– Girl * Arthur Lowe – Mr King * Stanley Meadows – Gidney

References

External links

Screenonline on ABC production of 'A Night Out'
see "Full Synopsis."
''A Night Out'' at haroldpinter.org
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Night Out 1959 plays 1960 television plays Plays by Harold Pinter 1960 radio dramas Television shows produced by ABC Weekend TV