A Night Out (play)

A Night Out is a play written by Harold Pinter in 1959.[1][2]

Tom Bell in the Armchair Theatre production opening titles

Albert Stokes, a loner in his late twenties lives with his emotionally suffocating mother and works in an office. After being falsely accused of groping a female at an office party, he wanders the streets until he meets a girl, who invites him to her flat, where he responds to her overtures by angrily demeaning her. Then he returns home to his mother.[3]

The play had its first performance on the BBC Third Programme on 1 March 1960, with Pinter's acting-school classmate and friend Barry Foster as Albert Stokes, Harold Pinter as Seeley, and Vivien Merchant, Pinter's first wife, as the Girl. (Full production details and "Radio Review" accessible at www.haroldpinter.org.) [4]

Its performance on television a month later, on 24 April 1960, was Pinter's first big success as a playwright in that medium. As presented on ABC Television's Armchair Theatre, it was viewed by 6.4 million households, at that time a record for a single television drama.[5][6][7]

Some other ABC production details (full cast and credits accessible at BFI Screenonline):

• Director Philip Saville
• Producer Sydney Newman
• Designer Assheton Gorton

Cast

• Tom Bell – Albert Stokes
• Madge Ryan – Mrs Stokes
• Harold Pinter (as David Baron) – Seeley
• Vivien Merchant – Girl
• Arthur Lowe – Mr King
• Stanley Meadows – Gidney