Lia Williams – Ian Louis Harris

The Hothouse by Harold Pinter, Lyttelton Theatre, 28 July 2007

We really enjoyed this play and production. It is a rare example of a Pinter comedy, which he wrote during his heyday in the mid 1950s but I don’t think it got produced until a fair bit later.

Being Pinter, the line between comedy and tense psychodrama is a thin one. Indeed, plays like The Caretaker, The Birthday Party and The Dumb Waiter are sinister yet have plenty of humour in them. The Hothouse has plenty of humour yet is sinister; it is set in an anonymous government run mental institution. Say no more.

This was a superb cast and production. Stephen Moore, Finbar Lynch, Leo Bill and Lia Williams the standouts. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry. For once, the awkward depth/shape of the Lyttelton stage could be used to good effect for an institutional look.

It was pretty well received by the critics on the whole:

A Kind Of Alaska, The Collection, The Lover by Harold Pinter, Donmar Warehouse, 13 June 1998

This was one heck of a good evening at the theatre. A triple-bill of Pinter. I think it was Janie’s and my first visit to the Donmar Warehouse, not least judging by the detailed notes Janie wrote down while booking this, including the full address etc.

Janie paid £15 a ticket for Row C centre stalls. Not bad to say the least, even if £15 was real money in 1998. In those days, the Donmar was still regarded (and priced) as fringe. Janie noted the following timings:

A Kind Of Alaska 7.00 to 7.50;
Interval 25 minutes;
The Collection 8.15 to 9.10;
Interval 25 minutes;
The Lover 9.30 to 10.25.

What a cast…or should I say, what casts – as this triple bill had a separate cast for the first play and then one cast for both the second and third.

A Kind of Alaska starred Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy & Brid Brennan.

The Collection starred Harold himself (always good value as an actor as well as a playwright & director), Douglas Hodge, Lia Williams & Colin McFarlane. The latter three also starred in the Lover.

We thought all three plays excellent and the whole production top notch.

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard only really liked the first play:

de Jongh Standard Pinters 14 May 1998, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend Michael Billington clearly liked all three, although he did share de Jongh’s view that three Pinters in one night was possibly a Pinter too many:

Billington Guardian Pinters 14 May 1998, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer also deemed three to be one too many, but unlike de Jongh, Spencer didn’t like the first and did like the other two:

Spencer Telegraph Pinters 15 May 1998, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Oh well. We were happy.

Oleanna by David Mamet, Royal Court Theatre, 24 July 1993

These days (he says, writing more than 25 years later), I do most of the running with regard to booking theatre. But back then, Janie was more proactive.

There are notes in her diary from weeks before, working out when this was going to open and when we might be available. Then, for the day itself (as one might now find in my diary) notes on exactly which seats she’d booked (Row J) and how long the play might be (8:00 to 10:10).

For sure I would have been a willing participant in seeing the latest Mamet – I had been a bit of a Mamet fan for years by 1993. David Suchet and Lia Williams? yes please. Harold Pinter directing? just tell me where I need to go and when. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry.

I remember it being a very good production of an extremely powerful play. Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry on the play.

It was in fact a very controversial play and Mamet had written more than one ending for it. There was much debate in the press.

Below is Michael Billington’s review: