The Basement is based on "The Compartment" (1965), an unpublished 27-page screenplay (circulated only in typescript) that Pinter wrote in 1963–65 "for a film never made, planned as part of a triple-bill, Project I promoted by Grove Press, New York, with Samuel Beckett's Film [1965] and Eugène Ionesco's The Hard-Boiled Egg" (Baker and Ross 112).
The "exterior" and "interior" of "a basement flat" in various seasons and at various times of day and night (Two Plays and a Film Script 91–112).
Two men, (Tim) Law and (Charles) Stott, compete for possession of and dominance over a "basement flat" and their at-times mutual girlfriend, Jane.
The character relationships between Stott and Law and the basic plot resemble Pinter's prose fiction works "Kullus" and "The Examination".
The Basement was first produced on stage at the Eastside Playhouse, in New York City, in October 1968, as part of a double bill with Pinter's play Tea Party, directed by James Hammerstein.
Hammerstein also directed another stage production at the Duchess Theatre, in London, on 17 September 1970 (The Basement, HaroldPinter.org) with a new cast.
London: The British Library (BL); New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press (OKP), 2005.