Harold Pinter wrote The Hothouse in 1958 as a follow-up to The Birthday Party, yet famously decided to discard it as he deemed it “heavily satirical and quite useless”. It was only in 1979 that he decided to go back to it. He directed its premiere in 1980 and it is now regarded among his finest works.

The play has never been staged locally, as far as I can remember, and, thanks to this fine production by Teatru Malta we not only finally get to see it staged, but we get a very good Maltese translation of the text, courtesy of the very talented Simone Spiteri.

The translation not only manages to convey Pinter’s inimitable writing style but also successfully captures the wry humour so typical of the playwright in a language that is (let’s face it) not known for its subtleties. In fact, Spiteri cleverly eschews the temptation of turning this black comedy masterpiece into a farce and thereby dilute its strong political message.

Teatru Malta have once again produced an exciting piece of theatre in Maltese

The production also marks one of Teatru Malta’s commendable initiatives to give an opportunity to young, promising local directors to direct one of the company’s productions. We currently have a strong base of very talented actors spanning  various age groups, yet the number of directors that are currently pushing the envelope is still very small.  

André Agius has been chosen to direct this production on the strength of his directorial debut with David Hare’s Skylight last year, as well as Watts in the Dark for the Ħolqa – European Theatre Festival. Although I have long admired Agius’s acting, this is the first time I have watched a piece that he has directed and I must applaud the choice.

The production possesses a strong visual and aural coherence that not only strongly underlines the ideas in the text but makes them resonate with meaning for a 20th century audience in Malta thanks to one of the best uses of scenery courtesy of Romualdo Moretti, the dramatic lighting of Chris Gatt, and the evocative sound design of Luke Cucciardi.

Although Pinter keeps the setting suitably vague, it is clear that the action is set in some sort of ‘rest-home’ where select ‘patients’ are sent by the ‘ministry’ to ‘convalesce’. Running the institution in the most inept manner imaginable is an ex-military man by the name of Roote (a hilarious and memorable performance by Victor Debono) aided by his scheming deputy Gibbs, the insubordinate Lush and the promiscuous Miss Cutts.

The action is set on Christmas Day as Roote receives the news that patient 6457 has died while another, 6459, has unexpectedly given birth. This sets off a series of hilarious and harrowing events that reveal the hiddenmachinations of power.

The acting of all the lead roles ranged from very good to patchy. At times I felt that the actors lost their concentration and struggled with some key lines. The pace of the direction was overall quite fast (at least by Pinter’s standard) and some of the scenes might have benefitted from more time for the dialogue to sink in, so that the underlying menace could be more strongly delineated. On the other hand, the pace ensured that the delivery of some of the comic lines was spot on which more than made up for the weaker moments.

Following hot on the heels of their excellent production Raymond ‘Fight’ Beck, Teatru Malta have once again produced an exciting piece of theatre in Maltese. The wonderful hall at Mount Carmel was a great choice to stage this play, yet not as much for its connections with the mental health institution next door. In fact I felt that the extra effort to connect the two only served to weaken, rather than strengthen, the underlying political theme of the script.

The script is primarily a desperate (and despairing) attack at the hypocrisy of people in power endlessly finding scapegoats for their own ineptitude and misdemeanours while they use the masses to enable their vile plans.

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