Mixed Doubles

Methuen. PINTER, Harold, et al.  Mixed Doubles. An Entertainment on Marriage.   London: Methuen & Co Ltd., 1970 Small 8vo., black boards, spine titled in gilt; in the blue, black and white dustwrapper (clipped, with overlaid price sticker removed); pp. [xii], 13-90, [vi, ads]; upper edge a little spotted, else fine in the very good wrapper, rubbed along folds, with a couple of faint water marks to foot.  First edition, signed by Harold Pinter to the title page.  A series of dramatic sketches by Alan Ayckbourn, John Bowen, Lyndon Brook, David Campton, George Melly, Alun Owen, Harold Pinter, James Saunders and Fay Weldon, first presented at the Hampstead Theatre Club on February 6th 1969 under the title We Who Are About To and later at the Comedy Theatre, London, on April 9th of the same year. Each of the sketches portray marriage in various stages, and are linked by anti-authoritarian monologues by George Melly, who was a Jazz singer, critic and writer. Following the process from the first blessing through 25 years to the silver wedding anniversary, the sketches portray characters through various life events, professional developments, and perhaps inevitable marital troubles.  Pinter here provides the sketch night, which involves a discussion between a married couple as they reminisce about their early lives together. The Comedy Theatre production saw Nigel Stock in the character of Man and Pinters then-wife Vivien Merchant in the role of Woman. In the London Financial Times, Alastair Macaulay reviews the production thus: He recalls that the first time he held her was on a bridge; he recalls holding her breasts in his hands. She recalls no bridge, she recalls a different place, she recalls how he took her hand and gently stroked it. Has anyone ever caught more finely the differences between male and female feelings about heterosexual love than Pinter? . Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 1970.