The Hothouse

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The Hothouse is a play written by Harold Pinter between two of his best-known early plays, The Birthday Party and The Caretaker. After writing The Hothouse in the winter of 1958, Pinter shelved the play following the initial commercial failure of The Birthday Party; it was first produced (directed by Pinter) and published in 1980.

The play is set in a dubious institution; referred to throughout the play as both a 'rest home' and a 'sanitorium', wherein the residents (or 'patients') are referred to by number, rather than by name. The institution's bombastic leader, Roote, has his professionalism and even his sanity constantly undermined by his two lackey underlings, the quiet and efficient Gibbs and the sleazy and alcoholic Lush. Roote's calculating and shrewd mistress, Miss Cutts, adds to the mayhem. After the supposed murder of one patient and the rape and resulting pregnancy of another, Roote, Gibbs and Lush set out to find the culprit(s), only to discover a disturbing secret.

1 List of Characters
2 Interpretations
3 Productions
4 Notes

[edit] List of Characters

Roote
Gibbs
Lush
Miss Cutts
Lamb
Tubb
Lobb

[edit] Interpretations

^{[original research?]}

The play is often interpreted as a searing indictment of institutionalised bureaucracy. The dark mix of comedy and horror in The Hothouse means that the play is often seen as Pinter's most overtly comic piece of writing, yet the manner in which the play finds black, absurdist humour within the corridors of power hints towards the more blatant political direction of some of the playwright's later writings, such as One for the Road and Mountain Language.

[edit] Productions

A revival of The Hothouse, directed by Ian Rickson, with a cast including Stephen Moore (Roote), Lia Williams (Miss Cutts), and Henry Woolf (Tubb), was staged in the Lyttelton at the Royal National Theatre, London, from 11 July to 27 October 2007. Stage review [1].^[1]

[edit] Notes

^ "The Hothouse", Royal National Theatre, accessed 15 June 2007.

v • d • e

The plays of Harold Pinter

Plays : Ashes to Ashes, The Basement, Betrayal, The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, Celebration, The Collection, The Dumb Waiter, The Dwarfs, Family Voices, The Homecoming, The Hothouse, A Kind of Alaska, Landscape, The Lover, Moonlight, Monologue, Mountain Language, A Night Out, Night School, No Man's Land, Old Times, One for the Road, Party Time, Remembrance of Things Past (with Di Trevis), The Room, Silence, A Slight Ache, Tea Party, Victoria Station, Voices (with James Clarke)
Sketches : Apart From That, Applicant, The Black and White, Dialogue for Three, Interview, Last to Go, The New World Order, Night, Precisely, Press Conference, Request Stop, Special Offer, That's All, That's Your Trouble, Trouble in the Works