The Lover [tv script] (1962)

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Harold Pinter

TV script

English

The Lover is a 1962 one-act play by Harold Pinter, originally written for television, but subsequently performed on stage. 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. 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.

Date of Composition: 1962

Linked Works

The Lover

Linked Places

Windsor (Type of place: Location (within the fiction))

Windsor

Sarah and Richard in The Lover live 'near Windsor', placing them outside that already small town and therefore in a small village or countryside south of the M4 (or A4, as it was at that point); 'so far away from the main road, so secure' as Sarah describes it. This serves to locate them in a wealthy, conservative and polite society.

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Fairmead Court, Taylor Avenue, Kew (Type of place: Place of composition)

Fairmead Court, Taylor Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4EA, England

Pinter moved here with his wife and son in the summer of 1960, following the success of The Caretaker. They lived here until 1963.

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Publishers

No publishers have been added to this work record yet.

Characters

Sarah (Age: Not specified, Female)

John (The Lover) (Age: Not specified, Male)

Richard (The Lover) (Age: Not specified, Male)

Resources

Scrapbooks and other resources pertaining to this production (Papers)

Type: Archival holding

Joan Kemp-Welch Papers, Special Collections, BFI Reuben Library, BFI Southbank, London

Teleview: Did you Enjoy Harold Pinter’s The Lover last night? (Papers)

Type: Review

Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph, 29 March 1963

Such an Elegant Love Play, by Richard Sear (Papers)

Type: Review

Daily Mirror, 29 March 1963

Pinter Play’s Message is Received, by Lyn Lockwood (Papers)

Type: Review

The Daily Telegraph, 29 March 1963

Sources

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lover_(play)#cite_note-2

URL

Summary adapted from this entry.