The Questors Theatre Ealing – until 26 September 2026
Reviewed by Michael Linane
3***
It is always difficult to review plays by Harold Pinter without giving away too much of the plots. “What plots?” you might ask as it is sometimes difficult to understand exactly what is going on between the characters on stage in front of you – such is the dichotomy of watching a play by Pinter.
The Lover and A Slight Ache is a double bill of plays that might feature the same characters at different points in their lives or it might not. They certainly have different names in each play but could so easily be the same people in the same marriage that is being portrayed before us.
To make matters even more confusing The Lover has two different casts performing on different evenings. One cast is younger than the other and each cast looks at the marriage from different perspectives – one from the point of view of the wife, the other of the husband. This review is of the younger cast.
It was originally written for television but subsequently performed on stage. It’s a play that contrasts bourgeois domesticity with sexual yearning.
Harry Roebuck plays Richard and Catherine Luff is Sarah – who appear to be an ordinary middle-class couple. Their calm discussion about Sarah’s lover initially suggests that their marriage lacks emotional attachment or that they have accepted an unconventional lifestyle. However, a later revelation completely changes this impression. The audience realizes that the couple has created an imaginative arrangement to preserve excitement and passion within their marriage. Pinter suggests that long-term relationships often require creativity and mutual understanding rather than merely following traditional expectations.
The play also examines the contrast between routine and excitement. Everyday married life is presented as orderly, predictable, and stable, while something else in this marriage introduces mystery, desire, and anticipation.
A significant strength of the play lies in its use of dialogue. The conversations appear simple and natural, yet they contain hidden meanings that only become clear as the story progresses. Pinter avoids lengthy explanations, allowing pauses, questions, and seemingly ordinary remarks to build suspense. The audience must pay close attention because every exchange contributes to the gradual revelation of the truth. This understated style encourages active participation and interpretation rather than providing immediate answers. As the dialogue continues, subtle hints suggest that appearances may be misleading.
The play also contains an effective blend of humour and seriousness. The calm conversation about adultery is initially amusing because it defies ordinary expectations. However, beneath this humour lies a serious examination of loneliness, desire, trust, and emotional fulfilment. Pinter balances these contrasting tones skilfully, ensuring that the play remains both entertaining and meaningful.
The setting contributes significantly to the play’s impact. The entire action takes place in the living room of an ordinary suburban house. This familiar domestic environment emphasizes that extraordinary emotional experiences can exist within ordinary lives. The simplicity of the setting keeps the audience focused on the characters and their conversations rather than on external events or elaborate stage effects.
The play’s language reflects Pinter’s distinctive dramatic style. The dialogue is concise, conversational, and often indirect. Important ideas are suggested rather than openly stated, allowing silence and implication to carry as much meaning as spoken words. This economical use of language creates tension and invites the audience to interpret the deeper significance of the characters’ exchanges.
The conclusion is deliberately open-ended yet satisfying.
In conclusion, The Lover is a masterfully constructed one-act play that explores marriage, identity, imagination, and emotional fulfilment through a deceptively simple story. Its realistic setting, carefully crafted dialogue, gradual revelation, and psychologically rich characters make it one of Harold Pinter’s most memorable dramatic works.
A Slight Ache is a one-act play first written for radio. It blends absurdist theatre with Pinter’s trademark “comedy of menace.” On the surface, it tells the story of Edward and Flora, a middle-class couple whose quiet domestic life is disturbed by the presence of a mysterious match seller outside their home. Yet beneath this simple setup, the play explores themes of aging, repression, desire, identity, and mortality.
Edward’s obsession with the old match seller reflects his fear of growing old and dying.
The match seller embodies decay, silence, and mortality—an unavoidable reality that Edward cannot confront. The match seller’s silence contrasts with Edward’s verbosity. Pinter suggests that silence may carry greater power than speech; Edward’s words fail to mask his vulnerability, while the match seller’s silence dominates the space. Edward’s aggressive questioning masks insecurity about his waning virility and authority. Flora’s attraction to the match seller further emasculates Edward, reversing traditional gender roles. Flora’s tenderness toward the match seller reveals her unfulfilled desires and dissatisfaction with Edward. Edward represses his fears and sexuality until they overwhelm him. The match seller is never explained—he may be a real figure, a projection of Edward’s psyche, or even a personification of death itself. His ambiguity is the source of both fear and fascination.
Wendy Megeney as Flora and David Hovatter as Edward give performances of such perfect nuance that they are worthy of gracing any West End stage and Iain Reid as the silent match seller is both menacing and confusing at the same time.
The set by Carla Evans works well for both plays even though they are set twenty years apart.
This is a double bill that will most certainly have you leaving the theatre wondering just what exactly you have just seen. Pinter makes nothing absolutely clear and it is up to the audience to decide exactly what is going on in front of you. If you like to be challenged by what you are watching these plays are most definitely for you. As I heard someone say as I left the theatre, “I haven’t a clue what it was all about but it was very good.”