Harold Pinter is one of the most significant and widely influential living British playwrights. From his early fame as the controversial author of disconcerting, unconventional dramas in the 1960s to the sparse, provocative plays he has offered steadily through the 1980s and 1990s, he has fascinated audiences and critics alike. His work forms a cornerstone of the dramatic literature of the contemporary British stage and has been integrated into the repertories of theatres world-wide. This book offers a critical examination of his dramatic writing over four decades, from The Room (1957) to Celebration (2000), emphasising the worth of the plays as pieces written for performance, investigating their status as dramatic (as opposed to literary) texts.