Production

The première was given by the Royal Shakespeare Company

Royal Shakespeare Company

The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...

 in London on 2 July 1969, directed by Peter Hall.

The cast was:

• Ellen (a girl in her twenties) – Frances Cuka
  Frances Cuka
  Frances Cuka is a British actress, principally on television, whose career has spanned nearly fifty years.Cuka was born in London, England, the daughter of Letitia Alice Annie , a tailor, and Joseph Cuka, a process engraver. On stage, she created the role of Jo in Shelagh Delaney's play A Taste of...
  
  
• Rumsey (a man of forty) – Anthony Bate
  Anthony Bate
  Anthony Bate is an English actor.He is possibly best known for his role as Oliver Lacon in the BBC television adaptations of the John le Carré novels Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People....
  
  
• Bates (a man in his middle thirties) – Norman Rodway
  Norman Rodway
  -Early life:Rodway was born in Dublin to English parents, Frank and Lillian Rodway. He studied classics, graduating at Trinity College. He worked as an accountant, teacher, and university lecturer before acting.-Career:...
  
  .

The American première was given in 1970 by the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, with Barbara Tarbuck

Barbara Tarbuck

Barbara Tarbuck is an American actress born in 1942 in Detroit, Michigan. She is usually seen interpreting Lady Jane Jacks in General Hospital.-Biography:...

, Robert Symonds

Robert Symonds

Robert Symonds was an American actor. He was the associate director of the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center from 1965 through 1972.-Career:...

 and James Patterson

James Patterson

James B. Patterson is an American author of thriller novels, largely known for his series about American psychologist Alex Cross...

, directed by Peter Gill

Peter Gill (playwright)

Peter Gill, theatre director, playwright and former actor, was born in Cardiff, Wales, on 7 September 1939, son of George John Gill and his wife Margaret Mary .He was educated at St Illtyd's College, Cardiff.-Career:...

.

Background

In the introduction to the first volume of his Complete Plays, Pinter wrote, "There are two silences. One when no word is spoken. The other when perhaps a torrent of language is being employed. This speech is speaking of a language locked beneath it. That is its continual reference. The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear. It is a necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, anguished or mocking smoke screen which keeps the other in its place. When true silence falls we are still left with echo but are nearer nakedness. One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness."