The Lover (play)

Pinter leads the audience to believe that there are four characters in the play: the wife, the husband, the wife's lover and the husband's whore. 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 Reception At the British Academy Television Awards Pinter won for Best Script, Badel and Merchant won for Best Actor and Actress, respectively, and Kemp-Welch won the Desmond Davis Award for outstanding creative work. The Lover also won the Prix Italia. ==Original London stage production==

The Lover opened at the Arts Theatre 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 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==