Truth, lies and fantasies in long-term relationships sit at the slippery centre of these one-act plays from the early 1960s, originally written by Harold Pinter for television. The couples – straight, bisexual, jealous and betraying – are not so much engaged in power battles as playing psychological games whose terms can suddenly change. They are enacted under Lindsay Posner’s slick direction, the nervy comedy drawn out by an astute cast, without being hammed up.
The first is the simpler in its setup but more satisfying for its clever twist. A quintessential home counties couple, Sarah (Claudie Blakley) and Richard (David Morrissey), act out “adulterous” sexual fantasies with each other. The husband is the wife’s Lady Chatterley-style lover every afternoon. Then it becomes a delicious satire of bourgeois norms as they return to middle-class respectability by evening, talking about the hollyhocks in their garden.
