The Hothouse [Paperback]

Harold Pinter (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pinter, Harold | Publication Date: March 1, 1999

A black comedy set in a government-run mental institution, The Hothouse revolves around a sinister murder plot hatched against a backdrop of corruption, sexual favors, and hopeless bureaucratic ineptitude. Beneath the surface comedy there are frightening implications concerning a bureaucracy ostensibly dedicated to humanitarian concerns, but where people are referred to by numbers and forgotten as easily as troublesome figures on a balance sheet. Written in 1958, The Hothouse was first performed at London's Hampstead Theatre in April 1980, in a production directed by Pinter himself. "A blistering funny play. . . . Hothouse is wild, impudent, fiercely funny."-Jack Kroll, Newsweek

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Hothouse fuses tragedy and farce, terror and nonsense in a unique mix that is sometimes chilling, sometimes bewildering, yet always, at every moment, fiercely alive and vital." -- Elliot Norton, Boston Herald American

"The Hothouse is Pinter's funniest play." -- Ed Kalem, Time

"Characteristically cryptic and very funny, just what Kafka might have come up with." -- Carolyn Clay, The Boston Phoenix

"The playwright has an unfailing ear for institutionalized doublespeak, and The Hothouse is full of rapid-fire bits that sound like old vaudeville routines as they might have been rewritten by Ionesco." -- Frank Rich, The New York Times

From the Back Cover

A black comedy set in a government-run mental institution, The Hothouse revolves around a sinister murder plot hatched against a backdrop of corruption, sexual favors, and hopeless bureaucratic ineptitude. Beneath the surface comedy there are frightening implications concerning a bureaucracy ostensibly dedicated to humanitarian concerns, but where people are referred to by numbers and forgotten as easily as troublesome figures on a balance sheet. Written in 1958, The Hothouse was first performed at London's Hampstead Theatre in April 1980, in a production directed by Pinter himself.

"A blistering funny play . . . Hothouse is wild, impudent, fiercely funny." Jack Kroll, Newsweek

"The Hothouse is Pinter's funniest play."-Ed Kalem, Time

"The playwright has an unfailing ear for institutionalized doublespeak, and The Hothouse is full of rapid-fire bits that sound like old vaudeville routines as they might have been rewritten by Ionesco." Frank Rich, The New York Times

"Characteristically cryptic and very funny, just what Kafka might have come up with."- Carolyn Clay, The Boston Phoenix

"The Hothouse fuses tragedy and farce, terror and nonsense in a unique mix that is sometimes chilling, sometimes bewildering, yet always, at every moment, fiercely alive and vital." Elliot Norton, Boston Herald American

Harold Pinter is the author of such seminal modern dramas as The Caretaker, The Birthday Party, and The Homecoming. He is married to Lady Antonia Fraser.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802136435
• ISBN-13: 978-0802136435
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #503,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Harold Pinter's most kafkian drama, January 18, 2002

By 

Ventura Angelo (Brescia, Lombardia Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hothouse (Paperback)

This drama is a nightmare made for the theater. We don't know, and it isn't really important,if this is a political,social,existential satire or what; we can but gaze in horror at the poor victims of a bunch of demented wardens.All is shown like in an unreal light, as in a lucid dream. And moreover, this gloomiest of dramas is also uncannily funny. Creepiest Pinter's Play.

3.0 out of 5 stars Whose House?, December 29, 2010

By 

Vance "Klaatu" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hothouse (Paperback)

At times intriguing, at times annoying, but ultimately satisfying, this play wavers between farce and serious drama and then leaves one guessing.

3.0 out of 5 stars Pinter is Punting Again, August 9, 2009

By 

John F. Rooney - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Hothouse (Paperback)

"The Hothouse" (1958) Harold Pinter's fifth play, was not produced until 1980. Largely farce and black comedy, it takes place in a mental institution where the staff cares so little about patients that they are only known by numbers. Patient No. 6457 has recently died, and Patient No. 6459 gives birth; the father is probably a staff member. We never meet any of the patients in this full-length play. Roote is the boss, and Gibbs is his second-in-command. Miss Cutts is the only female character.
As usual there are funny bits, almost like vaudeville gags, and mainly Absurdist dialogue. Roote is an insensitive supervisor, and the seven characters act robotically with very little humanity on display. When we listen to some of the dialogue by the minders of the mentally disturbed, we wonder if the tables haven't been turned.
Roote's morality and statements about staff members having affairs with patients is strange to say the least. "I don't mind the men dipping their wicks on occasion. It can't be avoided...It does no harm to either party...Never ride barebacked and always send in a report."
Gibbs and Cutts "torture" attendant Lamb with electrodes and ask a series of inane, farcical questions. Almost everything in the play is weird and off the wall. Who runs the nut house? Why, of course, the real nut cases. The play shows Pinter's fascination with words, the frequent nonsense and meaninglessness of words.
In one scene Roote keeps throwing whiskey in the face of the character Lush. Roote feels he is going to be murdered, and the play takes a sinister turn; again, the introduction of menace a la Theater of the Absurd. The play ends on a very grim, frightening note.
As the play progresses, it becomes less successful as a dramatic work. Pinter pulls out all the stops and doesn't quite knit it together. It gets too sensational without getting very meaningful. We need not ask of it, as a Theater of the Absurd piece, to be sensible, but we would like it to be significant. Black comedy, but a lot of shock for its own sake. Shock your audience but do it for a point or a purpose. Like Kafka it has a nightmare quality and a loss of contact with reality. It is not one of Pinter's better works, manipulative not deeply felt or successfully executed.