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Mountain Language | Introduction

When Mountain Language opened at the National Theatre in London on October 20, 1988, the audience was shocked by the play’s stark look at the machinations and effects of totalitarianism. Employing the characteristic structure and style of his previous plays, Harold Pinter focused on new subject matter. Drawing his inspiration from the long history of oppression the Kurds suffered under Turkish rule, Pinter centered his play in a prison controlled by unnamed guards in an unnamed country. As the Turkish did to the Kurds, the guards ban the prisoners’ native language as they incarcerate them for unnamed crimes against the State. This enigmatic play employs the innovative techniques found in Pinter’s earlier plays, blending absurdism and realism in illustration of the harsh reality of modern society and the individual’s isolated and powerless state within that society.

Commenting on Pinter’s distinctive style in his plays, Tish Dace writes in her article in Reference Guide to English Literature that his plays are ‘‘so rich’’ with ‘‘inscrutable motivations and ambiguous import that an international industry has arisen to explicate his art, and his name has entered the critical lexicon to deal with those derivative dramas now termed ‘Pinteresque.’’’ While Mountain Language can definitely be labeled ‘‘Pinteresque,’’ it also has been recognized for its author’s compelling political subject matter.

Mountain Language Summary

Act I: Prison Wall
The play opens with a line of women standing up against a prison wall. An elderly woman cradles her hand while a young woman stands with her arm around her. A sergeant and an officer enter. The sergeant points to the young woman and asks her her name. The young woman replies that they have given their names. The two repeat this dialogue until the officer tells the sergeant to ‘‘stop this s——.’’

The officer then turns to the young woman and asks her if she has any complaints. The young woman responds that the older woman has been bitten. When the officer asks the elderly woman who bit her, she slowly raises her hand but remains silent. The young woman tells him that a Doberman pinscher bit her. Again he asks the elderly woman who bit her hand, as if he had never heard the young woman’s reply. The elderly woman stares at him and remains silent. The younger woman, redefining her response, tells him ‘‘a big dog.’’ When the officer asks the dog’s name, he is met with silence, which agitates him to the point that he insists ‘‘every dog has a name’’ given by its parents. He informs them that before dogs bite, they state their name. He then tells the young woman that if the dog bit the elderly woman without stating his name, he will have the dog shot. When he is met again with silence, he barks, ‘‘silence and attention.’’

The officer then calls the sergeant over and asks him to take any complaints. When the sergeant again asks for complaints, the young woman tells him that they have been standing all day in the snow, while the guards have taunted them with the dogs, one of which bit the woman. The officer again asks the name of the dog. The young woman looks at him and answers, ‘‘I don’t know his name.’’

The sergeant then abruptly changes the subject, informing the women, ‘‘your husbands, your sons, your fathers, these men you have been waiting to see, are s——houses’’ and ‘‘enemies of the State.’’ The officer steps forward and identifies the women as ‘‘mountain people’’ and tells them that since their... » Complete Mountain Language Summary