LEWISTON – Bates College will present “The Birthday Party,” the first full-length play by Harold Pinter, Oct. 26-28. First produced in London’s West End in 1958, “The Birthday Party” transcended an initially poor reception to become one of the most-produced works by Pinter. “It’s definitely a thinking person’s show,” said director Amanda Ayotte, a Bates senior from North Chelmsford, Mass.

The play is set in a run-down boardinghouse. The landlord and landlady have a single lodger, Stanley, who appears to be a washed-up pianist. They are visited by Lulu, a woman with her eye on Stanley, and two toughs who have some kind of hold over him. Their psychological reconquest of the hapless tenant drives the action of the play.

The play as a whole, in fact, doesn’t pander to viewers or manipulate them, but instead, Ayotte said, “allows you to have your own ideas. In most plays, there’s a definitive end, there’s a definitive answer as to what happened. There isn’t that here … but what’s unique is the way that you get to think about it.”

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday in Gannett Theater, Pettigrew Hall, 305 College St. Admission is $6, $3 for seniors and non-Bates students. For more information, call 786-6161 or visit the Web site transact.bates.edu/boxoffice.