About the Play:

The Hothouse is a full-length drama by Nobel prize-winner Harold Pinter. In a government-run mental institution, where forgotten people are referred to by numbers, a sinister murder plot is hatched against a backdrop of corruption, sexual favours, and hopeless bureaucratic incompetence. The Hothouse is a blend of tragedy and farce, terror and nonsense.

The Hothouse is set in an unnamed government institution, possibly mental or medical and presumably penal, where the inmates are kept behind locked gates and are referred to by number rather than name. It is run by a particularly Pinteresque assemblage of bumbling, sometimes sinister, and often hilarious bureaucrats who may be madder than the inmates. In charge is Roote, a pompous ex-colonel who is surely as psychologically disturbed as his charges, and who is abetted by two main lackeys: the quietly sinister Gibbs and a seedy alcoholic appropriately named Lush. There is also the sexy Miss Cutts, whose favours appear to be shared by the various staff members. Among the matters at issue are the disturbing fact that one of the patients has given birth to a baby, though no one has filed an official report about having had sex with her and also the need for Roote to pull himself together to address the understaff Christmas party. In the final essence these bureaucratic crises hardly matter, however, as the play ends as ominously as it began, with a burst of lethal violence which leaves only one survivor to search for answers and, perhaps, to accept responsibility for the chaos which has ensued. Under a veil of devilish wit and subversive humour, Harold Pinter's biting political commentary on the perils of unchecked power is as vital and pertinent today as when he first wrote it.

A hit in both London and New York, this fascinating and very funny play finds the author at the top of his youthful powers. It was his second full-length work, written tin 1958, just before commencing work on The Caretaker. But Harold Pinter chose to withhold the play for over twenty years. The Hothouse was first produced in 1980 at Hampstead Theatre in London, in a production directed by Harold Pinter himself. The play has been performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 6 male

What people say:

"How lucky we are to have this new/old play before us at last! Pinter is an incandescence; he glows in the dark, and the glow and the dark are equally of his making." — The New Yorker

"The Hothouse finds Pinter near the top of his distinctive and disconcerting game." — The Times (London)

"…some of the funniest lines currently on Broadway…." — New York Post

"…it's amusing to rediscover him in youthful form…it's precisely the uninhibited high spirits of the author's immaturity that delight." — The New York Times

"It's a joy to see it revived on the National's stage … This early Pinter confirms that from the start he was not only a master of menace. He had a profound understanding of the danger of unchecked state powe." — The Guardian (London)

"The Hothouse is riotous and spooky fun … bringing a new lift to the theater season." — New York Daily News

About the Playwright:

Harold Pinter (1930-2008) was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, theatre director, poet, and Nobel laureate. He wrote 29 plays including The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, 15 dramatic sketches, 21 screenplays, as well as books of poetry and fiction, and directed 27 theatre productions. He continued to act under his own name, on stage and screen. His genius was recognized within his lifetime as a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005 (the highest honour available to any writer in the world), the Companion of Honour for services to Literature, the Legion D'Honneur, the European Theatre Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award and the Moliere D'Honneur for lifetime achievement. In 1999 he was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature, in addition to 18 other honorary degrees.