On 19 May 1958 Harold Pinter’s first full-length play, The Birthday Party, opened at the Lyric Hammersmith. 8 performances later it had closed following almost entirely hostile reviews.  The only positive review was by Harold Hobson in The Sunday Times but by the time it came out the play had closed.

It is now considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century drama and Harold Pinter is regarded as one of the world’s greatest playwrights.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005.  Exactly 50 years from that first opening, The Birthday Party returned to the Lyric in a brand new production.

Creative Team

Design by Jon Bausor
Lighting by Jon Clark
A Lyric Hammersmith Production
Produced by Fuel