Set in a state-run sanatorium where the so-called "patients" could actually be political dissidents undergoing various excruciating corrective treatments or family members submitted by family. It’s both sinister and absurdly funny. The competence and sanity of the Institution's director, Colonel Roote, are undermined by his assistants: the efficacious and industrious Gibbs, the suave and aptly named inebriant Lush, and table tennis loving Miss Cutts, Roote's calculating and crafty mistress and the highly enthusiastic, experiment willing Lamb.

With a backdrop of corruption, sexual favours, lack of loyalty, bullying and laxity. The Hothouse shows the casual inhumanity and corruption that creeps into institutional authority and festers beneath anodyne bureaucracy. One patient, has recently died. Another, has given birth, to who? no one seems to know.

Roote, the man in charge, is apparently unaware of either situation, despite having signed the death certificate and met the pregnant woman days earlier. Written by Harold Pinter in 1958, but shelved till 1980. It has been said Harold Pinter cleaned the gutters of the English language so that it ever after flowed more easily and more cleanly. His formidable reputation as playwright, actor, director, poet and artist make him a powerful and unique force in 20 th century literature. To view his work is to sit in expectation of the unexpected.

FUNDRAISER:
Proceeds donated to SHINE, a trust which raises funds against family violence, please see website http://www.2shine.org.nz/about-us/the-shine-story