Three Plays: A Slight Ache / The Collection / The Dwarfs

by Harold Pinter

Contains A Slight Ache, The Collection, and The Dwarfs.

Genres: Plays, 20th Century, Classics

108 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Harold Pinter was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964) and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993) and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television and film productions of his own and others' works.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up from a used book store for honestly no real reason. I do have to give credit to how great he is at creating this intense sense of unease in his plays. they were somewhat entertaining and I’d be down to see them preformed, but this was nothing groundbreaking. Solidly average and I would consider reading/watching his most famous works.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

An uneven collection from early in Pinter’s career, The Collection was the standout of this trio. I was again surprised at how these plays, especially The Collection, show early echoes of Betrayal, which was one of the high points of Pinter’s works. It’s fascinating to see how he was already laying the groundwork of themes and ideas nearly two decades before writing Betrayal. A Slight Ache and The Dwarfs, particularly the latter, are interesting only so far as understanding how a playwright was developing his voice. Recommended for those who have already read Pinter.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only one of the three I connected to here was The Collection. Pinter can be a tough read, which might lead to some of the praise I've heard of him being an actor's playwright, in that the dialogue is so coded and heavy with subtext that the situation itself becomes rather indecipherable. The other two read for me more like the myth of 'proper' school literature class reading: something that is so cryptic that students must resort to online sources to make any sense of it. I also wonder how Pinter gets performed nowadays, both in the UK and out, as the language is so clearly so dialectic to England and probably a particular time period of England at that.

[Chasen Stern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three short one-act plays read in three sittings. The standout by far was The Collection, which was bookended by a pair of forgettable pieces. I picked this volume up for less than a dollar at a yard sale a few weeks ago. No hard feelings for this slim book but after poking around Harold Pinter’s Wikipedia page, it seems like Three Plays isn’t exactly made up of major works. I’d like to read some of his more celebrated plays like The Birthday Party or Betrayal to get a better sense of his craft.

[Gianna Kelliher · Rating 3 out of 5]

comedy of manners between spouses, strangers, roommates, and sexual competitors. mostly about inviting people into your house and subjecting them to your sexually diagonal anglo mannerisms. better than betrayal (hated, awful), blueprinting homecoming (great). dry and cynical in a very mike leigh way

a slight ache and yorgos lanthimos’ short nimic are close to kin, wonder if yorgie read it

[Sahar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed "The Collection" and "A Slight Ache" but suffered through the 20 pages of "The dwarfs".

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slight Ache was a tad boring for me as I read it. I suppose there's some intrigue as to WHO this mysterious matchseller really is, but it's not until the last line of the play that I went "OH! I get it!" But in reality, I don't. I understand the "What a tweest!" moment, but not exactly what role the matchseller is playing.

A Collection was a much more interesting read, and I love a good femme fatale, as Stella attempted to be. Interesting dialogue, simple cuts from scene to scene and another "OH! I get it!" momemnt at the end. But this time, I really DID get it.

To be honest, I skimmed The Dwarfs. It started off very haphazardly and the dialogue was a bit droning. I lost interest within the first couple of pages.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stoppard's new play Rock & Roll is talk and more talk. For all his verbal brilliance, that's not my idea of theater. So I picked up some Pinter and, though these one-acts are slight, was not disappointed.

[Vincent Eaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early work. Very P. Longer work more meaty.