The Lover

Two plays with this title have been produced in South Africa:

= The Lover, by Harold Pinter =

The Lover is a 1962 one-act play by English playwright Harold Pinter (1930-2008). 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. The play contrasts bourgeois domesticity with sexual yearning.

The play was first presented by Associated-Rediffusion Television, London, 28 March 1963.

The first stage production was at the Arts Theatre, London, 18 September 1963.

Published by Methuen in 1964.

Performance history in South Africa
1965: Presented by the University of Cape Town's University Dramatic Society at the Little Theatre in June, directed by P. Grobbelaar.

1980: A Baxter Theatre Production was directed and designed by Ken Leach in a double bill with The Dumb Waiter, opening 25 January 1980, starring Richard Cox and Jacqui Singer.

1992: Lanon Prigge, Tamara Rabinowitz and Alasdair Gordon-Findlayson starred in the Rhodes University Drama Department Honours student production, directed by Julia Boltt, in September 1992.

1993: Presented by Malcolm Lütge, directed by Debbie Mailovich, starring Debbie Lütge and Esmael Texeira at the National Arts Festival Fringe.

Performance history in South Africa
1943: The Lover (Martinez Sierra): Presented by the Repertory Theatre Society, later known as the Cape Town Repertory Theatre Society performed on 7 April 1943 in a double bill with The Pineapple Barrow.

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