‘The Birthday Party’ (1957) is the first full-length play by Harold Pinter, initially published in London by Encore Publishing in 1959. It is one of his best-known and most frequently performed plays.

In the setting of a rundown seaside boarding house, a little birthday party is turned into a nightmare when two sinister strangers arrive unexpectedly. The play has been classified as a comedy of menace, characterised by Pinteresque elements such as ambiguous identity, confusions of time and place, and dark political symbolism.

Fun Fact : It was performed in the birthplace of the Theatre Group and the birthplace of English Theatre in India, at Kulsum Terrace in the Drawing room, as the small audience of approximately 30 people sat against the walls, the 6-7 doors of the living room, were beautifully used in such a way that Theatre Veteran Farrokh Mehta describes it as “A moment of Magic in Theatre”.