The Birthday Party

The Birthday Party is Harold Pinter's second play. Initially confounding critics in the 1950s, the play explores the fluidity of time, place and identity and quickly became a celebrated modern classic.

'A darkly comic masterpiece.' Daily Telegraph
'Harold Pinter remains pretty much incomparable as a playwright .

'A darkly comic masterpiece.' Daily Telegraph
'Harold Pinter remains pretty much incomparable as a playwright . . . a brilliant play.' Time Out

'A great, disturbing play.' Guardian
'Mr Pinter's terrifying blend of pathos and hatred fuses unforgettably into the stuff of art.' Sunday Times

Stanley Webber is visited in his boarding house by strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare.

The Birthday Party was first performed in 1958 and is now a modern classic, produced and studied throughout the world. This edition was published to coincide with a revival at the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2018, ten years after the playwright's death, and includes the full, reset text.