Summer 2016

Harold Pinter, Night School and The Lover

Just imagine …

… you are a small-time criminal trying to make money by forging signatures in post office books, but unfortunately you are the worst forger in the world. Getting nicked again and again, again and again you are doing time. Out at last after 9 months, you find that your aunts  Annie and Milly have let your bedroom to a young woman, apparently a teacher and a student of languages at a night school. Your first gut reaction is to get rid of her, but when you find a photo on which she poses in a nightclub wearing a low-cut dress, your interest is awakened…

… you are married and spend all day at home, feeling bored; Richard, your husband, is working in the City and passes his time in meetings, feeling bored. He doesn’t mind that your lover Max comes to see you in the afternoon, retrieving the bongo drum from its hiding-place, and sending you into ecstasies under the dining table. What Richard hasn’t told you is that he often spends time with a prostitute, a “common or garden slut”. One day you are wearing your high heels by mistake, and suddenly you and Richard find that things don’t work out as smoothly as you had thought they would …

… and let yourself be transported into the world of Harold Pinter's early plays Night School and The Lover ...

• Take a look at our programme with Martin Middeke’s introduction to Pinter’s plays.
• Listen to Bettina Auerswald’s sound tracks Intro and Tango.

• www.haroldpinter.org, the authoritative Harold Pinter webseite.