Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre has been one of the more regular champions of the works of Harold Pinter. In 2016 it presented The Betrayal, in 2022, an excellent The Caretaker directed by Iain Sinclair.

This time, Ensemble edges further back into the Pinter catalogue, pairing two disparate early works, 1957’s one-act black comedy The Dumb Waiter and 1962’s The Lover – the latter originally written for TV (and featuring Pinter’s then-wife Vivienne Merchant).

Nicole da Silva and Gareth Davies in The Lover. Photo © Prudence Upton

The evening kicks off with The Lover, immersing the audience in a heightened vision of 1960s suburbia, underscored with woozy Arthur Lyman-style exotica. We drop in to catch an office-bound husband (Gareth Davies) heading off to catch his morning train.

“Is your lover coming today?” he asks his wife (Nicole da Silva). Indeed, he is, she replies, adding that she’ll make sure he’s gone by the time hubby comes home.

I won’t spoil it for those unfamiliar with the play. It’s enough to say that what’s going is more complex than a depiction of an...