The first play by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, which was first staged at the University of Bristol fifty years ago, is to be restaged this week in the very same room in the Wills Memorial Building.

The play, entitled The Room, had its first production in the University’s Drama Department in May 1957.  The play was introduced to the Department by a student, Henry Woolf, a friend of Pinter's, and performed in a converted squash court.

To mark its 50th anniversary, Simon Reade, Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic will re-stage the play with a group of third year drama students.

Richard Jones, one of the student associate producers/directors said: “The opportunity to work with Simon Reade on a Pinter text is wonderful, and for it to be a 50th anniversary production of the first ever Pinter text has made it all the more exciting.  Learning about such an important part of the Department's history has been a thrilling process, but we have found that although the play was written in 1957, it is still more than relevant to a contemporary audience.” 

Lydia Spry, the other student associate producer/director added: “The process so far has been challenging, demanding and very rewarding, and we're all very excited about the production.”

One of the performances will be recorded by the British Library Sound Archive as part of its Theatre Archive Project.  The project also hopes to track down those involved with the 1957 production to capture their memories for a series of oral history interviews which will be conserved at the British Library and Bristol University’s Theatre Collection.  The original cast and backstage team, audience members, reviewers and anyone else with memories of that first production are invited to email the British Library at mss@bl.uk

The first production of The Room was directed by Henry Woolf, who also originated the role of Mr Kidd in the play.  Woolf had asked Pinter to write the play so he could direct it in order to fulfil requirements for his postgraduate work.  Pinter wrote the play very rapidly – in only a few days.

In The Room, one of the main characters, Rose Hudd is visited by a young couple, Mr and Mrs Sands, who are looking for a flat.  A blind black man named Riley, who has supposedly been waiting in the basement, suddenly arrives in Rose's room to deliver a mysterious message.  The play ends in violence after Rose's husband, Bert, returns.

The Room has strong similarities to Pinter's second play, The Birthday Party.  Both take place in a run-down building which becomes the scene of a visitation by an apparent stranger.

There will be three performances of The Room on 24, 25 and 26 May in front of an invited audience. The performances are supported by the University of Bristol Alumni Foundation.