Editing Mountain Language

{{short description|Theater play by Harold Pinter}}
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{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
[[File:MountainLanguage.JPG|thumb|right|First UK edition cover]]

'''''Mountain Language''''' is a one-act play written by [[Harold Pinter]], first published in ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' (TLS) on 7–13 October 1988.  It was first performed at the [[Royal National Theatre]] in London on 20 October 1988 with [[Michael Gambon]] and [[Miranda Richardson]].  Subsequently, it was published by [[Faber and Faber]] (UK) and [[Grove Press]] (USA).  ''Mountain Language'' lasts about 25 minutes in production. It was most recently performed as part of ''[http://smockalley.com/harold-pinter-theatre-menace/ Theatre of Menace] (2016)'' at the [[Smock Alley Theatre]] in Dublin, starring [[Alisa Belonogina]], [[Paul Carmichael]], [[Lana O'Kell]], Jaime Peacock, [[Louis Tappenden]] and Natasha Ryan<ref name=NYTimesRev>{{cite news|url=http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=950DE2D81F38F93AA35752C1A96F948260 |title=MOUNTAIN LANGUAGE – Review – Theater – New York Times |publisher=theater2.nytimes.com |access-date=15 January 2009 }}{{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
</ref>

==Background==
According to a letter from Pinter to ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', where it was first published and advertised, that publication's "advertisement ... stat[ing] that the play was 'inspired' by [Pinter's] trip to [[Turkey]] with [[Arthur Miller]] and is a "[[parable]] about [[torture]] and the fate of the [[Kurds in Turkey|Kurdish people]]" ... [are] ... assertions ...  made without consultation with the author [Pinter]"; he continues: "The first part of the sentence [that it was inspired by Pinter's trip to Turkey with Miller] is in fact true.  The play is not, however, 'about the fate of the Kurdish people' and, above all it is not intended as a 'parable'."<ref name=PinterLetter>Harold Pinter, Letter, ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'', 7–13 October 1988: 1109, as cited by Merritt 186 and Grimes 90.</ref> As Grimes points out, "Pinter evidently believes his political plays are too direct to be seen as metaphors or parables" (90).  As Pinter insists in that letter, the text has more universal relevance: "this play is not about the Turks and the Kurds.  I mean, throughout history, many languages have been banned––the Irish have suffered, the Welsh have suffered and the Urdu and the Estonians' language banned."<ref name=GrimesHP>Grimes 90, citing Pinter's official Website, ''[http://www.haroldpinter.org haroldpinter.org]''.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.haroldpinter.org/politics/politics_kurds.shtml|title=www.haroldpinter.org - Turkey and The Kurds|website=www.haroldpinter.org|access-date=2020-04-05}}</ref> The dialogue does contain some identifiably contemporary British or Western cultural references, thereby showing its applicability to the Great Britain of the present, but the text of the play contains no explicit geographical place setting and no explicit time setting, rendering its setting in place and time simultaneously indeterminate and thus also broadly relevant.<ref name=NYTimesRev/>

==Characters==
The play involves four main characters: a Young Woman (Sara Johnson), an Elderly Woman, a Hooded Man (Charley Johnson, husband of the Young Woman) and an unnamed Prisoner (son of the Elderly Woman).  These characters are in stark contrast to the Officer, Sergeant and guards of the prison where the Hooded Man and the Prisoner are captives.<ref name=NYTimesRev/>

==Thematic relevance of language==
Like the world of Pinter's 1984 play ''[[One for the Road (Harold Pinter play)|One for the Road]]'', the world of this play exposes the power of language (Merritt 171–209; 275; Grimes 80–100).  
Pinter's play may allude to political and cultural contexts of Great Britain in the 1980s headed by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] of [[Margaret Thatcher]], which, for example, [[1988–1994 British broadcasting voice restrictions|forbade]] the television networks from broadcasting the voice of the leader of [[Sinn Féin]], [[Gerry Adams]].<ref>
{{cite news
|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4409447.stm
|title=  The 'broadcast ban' on Sinn Féin
|access-date=15 January 2009
|last=Welch
|first=Francis
 | date=5 April 2005 | location=London
| work=BBC News}}
</ref>

== Mountain Language rehearsal in Harringey, London ==
In 1996, the play Mountain Language was to be performed by Kurdish actors of the ''Yeni Yasam'' company in [[London Borough of Haringey|Harringey]]. The actors obtained plastic guns and military uniforms for the rehearsal. But a worried observer alarmed the police, which lead to an intervention by the police with about 50 police officers and a helicopter. The Kurdish actors were detained and forbidden to speak in [[Kurdish languages|Kurdish language]]. After a short time, the police realized they have been informed of the performance being played in Harrington, and allowed the performance to go ahead.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Billington|first=Michael|title=Harold Pinter|date=2009-02-05|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-25052-3|pages=542|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/feb/03/ukguns.juliahartleybrewer|title=Met pays damages for raid on actors|author=Julia Hartley-Brewer|date=2000-02-01}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
*Grimes, Charles. ''Harold Pinter's Politics: A Silence Beyond Echo''.  Madison and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP; Cranbury, NJ: Associated U Presses, 2005.  {{ISBN|0-8386-4050-8}} (10).  {{ISBN|978-0-8386-4050-0}} (13).
*Merritt, Susan Hollis.  ''Pinter in Play: Critical Strategies and the Plays of Harold Pinter''.  1990; Durham and London: Duke UP, 1995.  {{ISBN|0-8223-1674-9}} (10). {{ISBN|978-0-8223-1674-9}} (13). 
*Pinter, Harold.  ''Mountain Language''.  ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' 7–13 Oct 1988: 1110–11.  New York: Grove P, 1989.

==External links==
*[http://www.haroldpinter.org/plays/title_language.shtml "Mountain Language"] at ''HaroldPinter.org – The Official Website for the International Playwright Harold Pinter''.

{{Pinter}}

[[Category:Plays by Harold Pinter]]
[[Category:1988 plays]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The Times Literary Supplement]]