The director of an institution that is half asylum, half sanatorium, is undermined by his subordinates as the result of an alleged murder that will overthrow the established order. A critique of bureaucracy that is the beginning of Harold Pinter's more political theatre. Directed by Mario Gas.

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Much has been written about Harold Pinters' style and the resonances that run through his texts. There are many of them, and they are mostly very reductionist. Faced with surprise and the difficulty of classifying it, it is more eloquent to overwhelm disturbing texts with assimilated references - to put them on the shelf alongside digested authors. Ah, yes! Pinter, of course: major influences from here and there, and at the same time one of the most influential authors of the second half of the twentieth century.
Well, we always look for a reassuring approach that enables us to frame the question and then be able to start to speak at length - to pontificate - about an author, trends, territories and insights. However, we do so while setting aside a profound understanding that can only be attained by certain elites which will be the custodians of the 'mystery’.
There are always those who know how and in which way to interpret the writer. And detaching oneself from them is dangerous, and leads to the risk of not being Pinteresque. La vâche! But the truth is that his dramatic universe has become a place that is personal, unique, devastating, critical and ideological. There is not one single Pinter but instead many of them, united by a prime common denominator: western urban man, his alienation, his dissolution at the same time as an expansion in a democratic and radically annihilating Western power.
We used to say that Pinter's dramatic and theatrical style contained many Pinters. The Hothouse,  belongs to the Pinter of extremely black farce  - dislocated, thrilling, acidic and corrosive, like a glassy underground river that melts and dissolves everything that in its path and in which power - political and state power in this case - leaves the stinking and exterminating nose.
The hothouse, the place of rest referred to by the author, is the opposite of what it seems or its intention suggests: a balsamic place for rehabilitation. On the contrary - it is a place of horror and psychological and total annihilation, neglect and abandonment, and of course, murder, unpunished disappearance and institutional silence.
You, honoured citizens and supporters of the established order, may unwittingly commit some mistake and forfeit your identity: you will become a number, you will brainwashed electrically and with brutality and it will not be difficult to make you disappear forever...
And this mechanism of established power is so ferocious and voracious that it will end up devouring itself in in this sterile, quiet, fraternal place which is celebrating the feast of the Nativity of our Lord when the action begins.
Be careful! Watch out... Don't let them put you there under any circumstances.
Mario Gas