ABSTRACT
In the next group of plays published together, A Slight Ache, The Collection, and The Dwarfs, along with the later play The Caretaker, mystery weighs almost equally with the theme of the intruder to produce the tension in the quest for dominance. In A Slight Ache, originally a radio play, Flora’s husband, a middle-aged, would-be squire, Edward, invites in and interrogates a completely silent old Matchseller who has been standing at the gate “in all weathers.” As Edward wants to know what the man is doing, he attributes certain actions to him: “You’re crying,” “You’re laughing,” “You’re moving.” Although on radio we hear only silence, Pinter felt, “We’re pretty certain however that the old man is not doing any of those things.” (Sherwood, n.p.) While it seemed to him “inconceivable” that the play could transfer to stage, it did with a single alteration: the Matchseller does make one positive action, but none of the other actions reported by Edward. (Wildman, n.p.) In the end Edward and the Matchseller chiasmically exchange positions as Edward, concerned that the Matchseller may be going blind, reveals it is he himself who may be doing so. When Edward collapses to the floor in the end, Flora steps out into the back garden with the Matchseller.
