# A Slight Ache > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/A_Slight_Ache > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/A_Slight_Ache.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Slight_Ache > Source revision: 1335627234 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1961 play written by Harold Pinter This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (October 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "A Slight Ache" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message) First edition cover ***A Slight Ache*** is a [tragicomic](/source/Tragicomedy) play written by [Harold Pinter](/source/Harold_Pinter) in 1958 and first published by [Methuen](/source/Methuen_Publishing) in [London](/source/London) in 1961. It concerns a married couple's dreams and desires, focusing mostly on the husband's fears of the unknown, of growing old, and of the "Other" as a threat to his self-identity. ## Characters - Edward - Flora - A match seller ## Themes One of the main themes involves one's insecurity about threats to one's self-identity embodied in the character of the matchseller, of whom one of the other two characters, Edward, is utterly terrified. The theme of growing old is also prevalent: according to Edward, the Matchseller is old, practically stone deaf, and has a glass eye[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*], and the middle-aged Edward and Flora continually reminisce about their youth throughout the play. Threat of the "Other" and obsessive romantic jealousy are also recurrent. ## Productions *A Slight Ache* premièred as a radio broadcast in 1959, prior to its first stage production. On radio, because the Matchseller does not speak in the play, he appeared to its audience to be a figment of Edward's imagination. The play has subsequently enjoyed a number of successful stage productions. In 2008 it was performed at the [National Theatre](/source/Royal_National_Theatre), starring [Simon Russell Beale](/source/Simon_Russell_Beale) and [Clare Higgins](/source/Clare_Higgins_(actress)), and directed by Iqbal Khan. The character of the matchseller appeared on the stage, played by Jamie Beamish. ## External links - *[A Slight Ache](http://www.haroldpinter.org/plays/title_slightache.shtml)* in the "Plays" section of *haroldpinter.org*. Accessed October 26, 2007. v t e Harold Pinter Plays The Room (1957) The Birthday Party (1957) The Dumb Waiter (1957) A Slight Ache (1958) The Hothouse (1958) The Caretaker (1959) A Night Out (1959) Night School (1960) The Collection (1961) The Lover (1962) Tea Party (1964) The Homecoming (1964) The Basement (1966) Landscape (1967) Silence (1968) Old Times (1970) No Man's Land (1974) Betrayal (1978) Family Voices (1980) A Kind of Alaska (1982) Victoria Station (1982) One for the Road (1984) Mountain Language (1988) Moonlight (1993) Ashes to Ashes (1996) Celebration (1999) Remembrance of Things Past (2000) Dramatic sketches Trouble in the Works (1959) Applicant (1959) Night (1969) Precisely (1983) Screenplays A Night Out (1961) The Caretaker (1963) The Servant (1963) The Pumpkin Eater (1964) The Quiller Memorandum (1966) Accident (1967) The Birthday Party (1968) The Homecoming (1969) Langrishe, Go Down (1970) The Go-Between (1971) The Last Tycoon (1976) The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) Betrayal (1983) Turtle Diary (1984) Reunion (1989) The Comfort of Strangers (1990) The Handmaid's Tale (1990) The Trial (1993) The Dreaming Child (1997) The Tragedy of King Lear (2000) Sleuth (2007) Related articles Works Bibliography Characteristics Honours and awards Relationship with academia Harold Pinter Archive Harold Pinter and politics Art, Truth and Politics Pinter's People Comedy of menace --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [A Slight Ache](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Slight_Ache) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Slight_Ache?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.