''Tea Party'' is a

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

written by

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that span ...

, which Pinter adapted from his own 1963 short story of the same title.''Plays: Three'' and ''Complete Works: Three'' 241–47. Subsequent references to these editions and to Pinter's official Website appear in parentheses in the text.The short story "Tea Party" is also published in ''Various Voices'' 94–98. As a

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, f ...

, it was commissioned by the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

, directed by

Charles Jarrott Charles Jarrott (16 June 1927 – 4 March 2011) was a British film and television director. He was best known for costume dramas he directed for producer Hal B. Wallis, among them '' Anne of the Thousand Days'', which earned him a Golden Glob ...

, and first transmitted on

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

in the programme ''The Largest Theatre in the World'' on 25 March 1965 (''Complete Works: Three'' 100).See also: Pinter, ''The Lover, Tea Party, The Basement'' 42. It was first produced on stage in October 1968 as part of a double bill with Pinter's play '' The Basement''.Quoted i
"Synopsis"
for ''Tea Party'', in "Harold Pinter (1930–2008)".

Synopsis

''Tea Party'' "revolves around a family engaged in a business of sanitary engineering."Back cover, ''The Lover, Tea Party, The Basement''. According to an account published in the ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...

'', the play concerns "a middle-aged self-made business man named Sisson" (whom Pinter later renamed Disson), who engages a young secretary, marries a beautiful young second wife, and takes his new brother-in-law into his business–all in the same day";

Mysteries abound. What is going on between the wife and her brother? Are they indeed brother and sister? Sisson has his doubts about that … . Why does Sisson feel that there must be something wrong with his eyes, although he knows that he can see clearly and his eye doctor has assured him that his vision is perfect? He forces his secretary to tie a chiffon scarf over his eyes, and then he is able to make a pass at her, in response to one of her many come-ons. Ordinary events assume a sinister tinge. Sisson's two sons, giving him the deadpan treatment that little boys have been inflicting on their elders from time immemorial, seem as eerie as characters out of a ghost story. Always the questions remain. Is there a conspiracy against Sisson.

Setting

"''A modern office in London''".''Tea Party and The Basement'' n. pag.

Original cast of BBC TV production

As listed in the published texts, the original cast of the BBC TV production transmitted on 25 March 1965 was:

Stage production

''Tea Party'' was produced as part of a double bill with ''The Basement'' at the

Eastside Playhouse East Side or Eastside may refer to: Places Australia * East Side, Northern Territory Canada * Eastside, Ontario, a neighborhood in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario * Downtown Eastside, Vancouver, British Columbia United Kingdom * Eastside, B ...

in New York, directed by

James Hammerstein James Blanchard Hammerstein (March 23, 1931 – January 7, 1999) was an American theatre director and producer. Life and career Hammerstein was the son of interior designer Dorothy Hammerstein (née Blanchard) and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein I ...

, in October 1968, with the following cast: Scenery was by Ed Wittstein, lighting by Neil Peter Jampolis, and costumes by Deidre Cartier."Tea Party (in double bill with The Basement) Eastside Playhouse, New York, October 1968"
in "Tea Party", ''HaroldPinter.org''. ''Tea Party'' opened at the

Duchess Theatre The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street near Aldwych. The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest West End theatres with a proscenium arch. It has 494 sea ...

on 17 September 1970, also directed by

and produced by

Eddie Kulukundis Sir Elias George Kulukundis OBE (20 April 1932 – 17 February 2021) was a member of a Greek shipping family whose professional career spanned shipping and the theatre. He was married to British actress Susan Hampshire. Early life Elias George ...

for Knightsbridge Theatrical Productions Ltd, with the following cast" (''Complete Works: Three'' 101):

Notes

Works cited

"Harold Pinter (1930–2008)
. '' Doollee.com: The Playwrights Database'', (last updated) 23 Feb. 2009.

Web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

. 23 Feb. 2009. * Pinter, Harold. ''Complete Works: Three''. New York:

Grove Press Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United Sta ...

, 1978. . [Contents: ''The Homecoming'', ''Tea Party'', ''The Basement'', ''Landscape'', ''Silence'', Revue Sketches: "Night", "That's Your Trouble", "That's All", "Applicant", "Interview", "Dialogue for Three", "''With the Memoir'', 'Mac', ''and the short story'', 'Tea Party' ".] *–––. ''The Lover, Tea Party, The Basement: Two Plays and a Film Script''. New York:

, 1967. . *–––. ''Plays Three''. Expanded edn., Contemporary Classics series. London:

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel ...

, 1997. . [Contents: ''The Homecoming'', ''Tea Party'', ''The Basement'', ''Landscape'', ''Silence'', "Night", "That's Your Trouble", "That's All", "Applicant", "Interview", "Dialogue for Three", "Tea Party" (short story), ''Old Times'', ''No Man's Land''.] *–––. ''Tea Party and The Basement: Two Plays by Harold Pinter''. Acting edn., first publ. 1969. New York: Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1998. . *–––. ''Various Voices: Prose, Poetry, Politics: 1948–2005''. London:

, 2005. .

External links

Harold Pinter's reading of his short story "Tea Party"
(and selected poems and other stories) – At the

92nd Street Y 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on 12 November 1964, hyperlinked in "92Y Podcast: Remembering Harold Pinter, British Playwright", 25 December 2008 (

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

; 65:41).
''Tea Party''
– In ''HaroldPinter.org: Official Website of the International Playwright Harold Pinter'' ("Plays"). {{DEFAULTSORT:Tea Party (Play) Plays by Harold Pinter 1965 plays Methuen Publishing books