"Is it a quarter to nine or a quarter to ten?”
“A quarter to ten.”
“Oh s**t!”
“But we have seen a play...”
“Oh yeah.”
It struck me there was a vaguely Pinteresque quality about this exchange between two young women which I overheard as they — we — left Oxford Playhouse last Wednesday night after the fine student production of The Hothouse.
Harold Pinter’s remarkable use of language — at once demotic but oddly poetic — is a compelling feature of this early, rarely seen play.
In it, he shows a sure grasp of the value of repetition as a means for keeping the audience amused. Perhaps the most oft-heard line —“Snow’s turned to slush” — is spoken by a character called Lush, who was most effectively portrayed by Jordan Waller (above). Could it be, I wondered, that his name had been inspired by that very agreeable word ‘slush’? His evident fondness for whisky, though, meant he was possibly a lush in the North American sense, too.
The line was not new to me. I read it many years ago as a disparaging witticism from Melvyn Bragg concerning the novels of C.P. Snow. Since I have always enjoyed the works of this now unjustly neglected writer, I felt compelled to pen a riposte in this column. I pointed out that such word games were not the unique preserve of the bouffanted one. “Bragg — braggart without the art,” I offered.
Never one to show false modesty, I remain rather proud of the joke.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here