ABSTRACT
In a program note to a 1960 production of two of his earliest plays, The Room (1957) and The Dumb Waiter (1960), Harold Pinter defends his theatrical technique, saying:
The desire for verification is understandable but cannot always be satisfied. There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and false. … A character on stage who can present no convincing argument or information as to his past experience, his present behavior or his aspirations, nor give a comprehensive analysis of his motives, is as legitimate as one who, alarmingly, can do all these things. The more acute the experience the less articulate the expression,
(quoted in Esslin 1961, 206)