My intention in this chapter is to deal with a particular public image of Pinter, that is the image of Pinter as playwright. This image was first constructed by the press, and specifically by theatre reviewers, in the early phases of Pinter's writing career, and has been further cultivated by the reviewers in the later phases of this playwright's career. Yet, I argue, Pinter, acknowledging the reviewers' construct of his dramatic style, does not remain passive. He chooses to respond to the critics in a unique mode, seemingly collaborative at first, but ultimately trapping them.

In order to provide an overview of Pinter’s career, presenting the ‘Pinter’ construct, on the one hand, and the playwright’s mode of response, on the other, I have chosen to focus on three highlights: first, the consolidation of the construct throughout Pinter’s process of acceptance by the critical community and Pinter’s ‘semi-collaborative’ response; secondly, an unpredictable poetic move, manifested by Pinter’s mid-career play A Kind of Alaska, and the reviewers’ conduct in this case; and thirdly, Pinter’s recent play Ashes to Ashes, the culmination of his ‘political phase’, yet another mode of poetic response to the critics, together with the critical reaction it elicited. This chapter will look particularly at the London productions of Pinter’s plays, and consequently with the reviews appearing in the London press.