The Hothouse review from 2007
Genre: Drama
Opened 18 July 2007
Written: by Harold Pinter
Directed: Ian Rickson
Produced: National Theatre
Cast: Leo Bill, Finbar Lynch, Stephen Moore, Paul Ritter, Lia Williams, Henry Woolfg (Polya), Rendah Heywood (Tsvetaeva), Stephanie Jacob (Akulina), Maggie McCarthy (Stepanida), Justine Mitchell (Elena)
Synopsis: This play was written in 1956 but was not produced until 1980. Set in what turns out to be a government-run mental home this play is a black comedy which examines bureaucratic power.
What the Popular press had to say.....
MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "It is 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 power." NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "What a beguiling sense of surprise and novelty Harold Pinter's The Hothouse engenders in a powerfully acted production by Ian Rickson that bristles with unease and menace." CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "Despite its dark theme, the drama constantly veers towards the farcical, creating a dramatic world in which Kafkaesque nightmare meets the surreal absurdity of Monty Python." JOHN THAXTER for THE STAGE says, "with Ian Rickson's freshly entertaining new approach, but still with dark erotic passages and unnerving psychiatric experiments, the central role is played to brilliant comic effect by Stephen Moore." BENDICT NIGHTINGALE for THE TIMES says, "I found it a bit more laboured than before, but also funnier, largely because of Stephen Moore's gloriously blustering performance as Roote."
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