The Lover is a 1962 one-act play by Harold Pinter, originally written for television, but subsequently performed on stage.

[5] Pinter leads the audience to believe that there are three characters in the play: the wife, the husband and the lover.

As the play goes on the man (first as the lover and then as the husband) expresses a wish to stop the pretend adultery, to the dismay of the woman.

The play originally premiered in a 60 minute TV production directed by Joan Kemp-Welch for Associated-Rediffusion, transmitted by ITV on 28 March 1963.

[6] It opened at the Arts Theatre on 18 September 1963 in a production by the author, as part of a double bill with his play The Dwarfs; and closed on 5 October.