Harold Pinter’s perfectionism included ice-cream sales, letter shows

Harold Pinter in his heyday: playwright was known for specifying the length of pauses actors should take.
Photograph: Jones/Getty Images

Harold Pinter was a perfectionist when it came to the theatre, even down to how an ice-cream seller should exit the auditorium, according to a previously unpublished letter.

In 1985, the dramatist directed the West End debut of Tennessee Williams’s Sweet Bird of Youth, starring Lauren Bacall, which opened on 8 July at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. On 24 July, he wrote to Anthony Peek, the theatre’s then manager, praising the previous night’s performance: “It was in pretty good shape, I thought, and I am delighted that business is so splendid.”