What do you think?
Mountain Language
Deals with prison life and the injustices suffered by the prisoners
47 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
About the author
Harold Pinter
405 books803 followersHarold Pinter was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964) and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993) and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television and film productions of his own and others' works.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 8, 2013
This is a short play with three sets of characters.
1) The two women who are visiting their imprisoned husbands. The women are made fools of time and again, "What is the name of the dog that bit you?" "Our dogs are trained to give their names and then bite." And with the younger woman, it is intimated that her husband's torture will be lessened in exchange for sexual favours. The women therefore are reduced to absolute powerlessness by the second group of characters.
2) The officers and guards. Authoritarian low-level officers exercising every bit of power they have in order to humiliate just because they can. They show the tyranny that the state can exercise over everyone if it wishes to.
3) The single prisoner that we see - hooded - so he can neither see, nor hear since his language forbidden to be spoken. He is a political prisoner subject to these extremes of repression.
It is all about repression of the weakest, depriving them even of a voice and making sure that even if they can speak the "language of the capital", they won't be able to. Who can answer, "What is the name of the dog?"
In a larger context it is how some countries repress the minorities within them and attempt to force their assimilation and annihalate their cultures. In this case Pinter was supposedly inspired to write this during a visit to Turkey on considering the plight of the Kurds. Historically, this is how the British ran their empire. We, who read this with ease, are now thankful that English is the universal language, first or second, it makes our lives easier. But pause a moment to consider how that came about and the picture is one of repression, exploitation and tyranny.
All in all, the main thing I enjoyed about it was that it was brief. I also enjoyed writing about Wales and the suppression of the Welsh language (below). If I got the chance I would like to see the play performed because reading this slight political drama was somewhat underwhelming.
***
Notes before reading the play.
When I came across this I just so wanted to read it. Prisoners are forbidden to speak their own language in a prison is its base line. I'm Welsh - the Welsh in the 19thC were forbidden to speak their own language in schools, polite society and just about anywhere the English could control it. The result is that in South Wales no-one speaks Welsh as their first language.
You might have expected it to have survived in the tiny villages of the Valleys (where I am from) if not the towns and cities, but no. Anywhere that was economically important to the English - the coal mines primarily - this only speaking the language of the iron masters (as they were called) who were raping the land for their own benefit, was enforced. The Valleys villages were all dependent on coal, and later steel. One English-owed industry after the next. Thatcher closed down steel (cheaper to get it abroad and the Welsh could always go on benefits couldn't they?) and coal has long gone. Now, a concession, we have S4C, a Welsh tv channel, but it is only a language we learn in schools and for all of us in South Wales it was as foreign a language as it is to the English.
Why did it survive in the North? Because the landscape is so rugged and there were no industries the English could exploit so it was left alone, more or less. Almost everyone in North Wales speaks Welsh as their first language.
This exploitation of local resources, forcible changing of culture and imposition of language wasn't limited to Wales alone, it was a defining part of the British Empire.
The resentment remains. How to piss off the Welsh, the Irish and the Scottish - use 'English' as a synonym for 'British'. Call us English, say we live in England, and when challenged, say 'England, Britain, it's the same thing.'
Uh no, no more than America and Canada, both North America, but not both Americans.
Ok, on with reading the play!
Update: If you want to read more about the historical and modern suppression of the Welsh language by the English (and how Queen Elizabeth I helped to save it, this is a good link.
***
1) The two women who are visiting their imprisoned husbands. The women are made fools of time and again, "What is the name of the dog that bit you?" "Our dogs are trained to give their names and then bite." And with the younger woman, it is intimated that her husband's torture will be lessened in exchange for sexual favours. The women therefore are reduced to absolute powerlessness by the second group of characters.
2) The officers and guards. Authoritarian low-level officers exercising every bit of power they have in order to humiliate just because they can. They show the tyranny that the state can exercise over everyone if it wishes to.
3) The single prisoner that we see - hooded - so he can neither see, nor hear since his language forbidden to be spoken. He is a political prisoner subject to these extremes of repression.
It is all about repression of the weakest, depriving them even of a voice and making sure that even if they can speak the "language of the capital", they won't be able to. Who can answer, "What is the name of the dog?"
In a larger context it is how some countries repress the minorities within them and attempt to force their assimilation and annihalate their cultures. In this case Pinter was supposedly inspired to write this during a visit to Turkey on considering the plight of the Kurds. Historically, this is how the British ran their empire. We, who read this with ease, are now thankful that English is the universal language, first or second, it makes our lives easier. But pause a moment to consider how that came about and the picture is one of repression, exploitation and tyranny.
All in all, the main thing I enjoyed about it was that it was brief. I also enjoyed writing about Wales and the suppression of the Welsh language (below). If I got the chance I would like to see the play performed because reading this slight political drama was somewhat underwhelming.
***
Notes before reading the play.
When I came across this I just so wanted to read it. Prisoners are forbidden to speak their own language in a prison is its base line. I'm Welsh - the Welsh in the 19thC were forbidden to speak their own language in schools, polite society and just about anywhere the English could control it. The result is that in South Wales no-one speaks Welsh as their first language.
You might have expected it to have survived in the tiny villages of the Valleys (where I am from) if not the towns and cities, but no. Anywhere that was economically important to the English - the coal mines primarily - this only speaking the language of the iron masters (as they were called) who were raping the land for their own benefit, was enforced. The Valleys villages were all dependent on coal, and later steel. One English-owed industry after the next. Thatcher closed down steel (cheaper to get it abroad and the Welsh could always go on benefits couldn't they?) and coal has long gone. Now, a concession, we have S4C, a Welsh tv channel, but it is only a language we learn in schools and for all of us in South Wales it was as foreign a language as it is to the English.
Why did it survive in the North? Because the landscape is so rugged and there were no industries the English could exploit so it was left alone, more or less. Almost everyone in North Wales speaks Welsh as their first language.
This exploitation of local resources, forcible changing of culture and imposition of language wasn't limited to Wales alone, it was a defining part of the British Empire.
The resentment remains. How to piss off the Welsh, the Irish and the Scottish - use 'English' as a synonym for 'British'. Call us English, say we live in England, and when challenged, say 'England, Britain, it's the same thing.'
Uh no, no more than America and Canada, both North America, but not both Americans.
Ok, on with reading the play!
Update: If you want to read more about the historical and modern suppression of the Welsh language by the English (and how Queen Elizabeth I helped to save it, this is a good link.
***
June 7, 2015
اجرای این نمایش رو در خانه فرهنگ و هنر رشت به کارگردانی کیوان خسرومرادی تماشا کردم. در یک کلمه، اجرای کم نظیر و منحصر به فردی داشت. این نمایشنامه به نظر لحن سیاسی آشکاری داره. دوستان رشت نشین علاقمند به تیاتر از دستش ندین. تا 22 خرداد 94 روی صحنه ست
بازیگران: کیوان خسرومرادی، ستاره لعل، مهیار ندائی [البته من ایشون رو نمی شناسم!]، آرزو عادلی، در کنار سارا سیدباقری و کارن خسرو مرادی
گفتگوی اختصاصی آرت گیل با کیوان خسرو مرادی ، کارگردان نمایش زبان پشت کوهی:
http://artgil.ir/?p=6622
بازیگران: کیوان خسرومرادی، ستاره لعل، مهیار ندائی [البته من ایشون رو نمی شناسم!]، آرزو عادلی، در کنار سارا سیدباقری و کارن خسرو مرادی
گفتگوی اختصاصی آرت گیل با کیوان خسرو مرادی ، کارگردان نمایش زبان پشت کوهی:
http://artgil.ir/?p=6622
September 14, 2026
"Your language is forbidden. It is dead."
Read
August 9, 2026Political Pinter! I knew vaguely of Pinter's fierce opposition to western imperialism from his Nobel lecture but it was refreshing to see the effects of state violence, war, and separation depicted so plainly in this set of plays.
Mountain Language – A terse play, largely consisting of staccato directives from repressive authority and crude expressions of desperation from a people repressed. The bluntness of language and nonsequitous dialogue (despite always taking on the basic call and response structure) bares Becket's influence such that the morbid forms the basis for the comedic. On the nose, no pretensions, and its clarity refuses to spare the contradictions of regime logic. You won't find much more than what's at the surface; indeed, violence can be that simple.
Ashes to Ashes – A characteristic Pinteresque memory play not dissimilar to Old Times or Betrayal. The welding together of images here is particularly impressive, however, because they are unusually disparate. At the most literal level, the scene depicts an interrogation of a woman by her partner regarding a former lover. The title and disjunction of memory evokes a demential episode, though the only sure truth in that association is disorientation spatial and temporal. Already the reality of the affair is thwarted by its sadomasochistic grammar—so are we listening to a recounting of sexual intimacy or an intended murder? Even that grounding question becomes quicksand as Pinter introduces a classic diorama of wartorn families, the image of mothers standing on platforms while their babies are ripped away. The only throughline remains the simultaneity of love and violence, warmth and its disappearance, colliding seamlessly into one another.
Mountain Language – A terse play, largely consisting of staccato directives from repressive authority and crude expressions of desperation from a people repressed. The bluntness of language and nonsequitous dialogue (despite always taking on the basic call and response structure) bares Becket's influence such that the morbid forms the basis for the comedic. On the nose, no pretensions, and its clarity refuses to spare the contradictions of regime logic. You won't find much more than what's at the surface; indeed, violence can be that simple.
Ashes to Ashes – A characteristic Pinteresque memory play not dissimilar to Old Times or Betrayal. The welding together of images here is particularly impressive, however, because they are unusually disparate. At the most literal level, the scene depicts an interrogation of a woman by her partner regarding a former lover. The title and disjunction of memory evokes a demential episode, though the only sure truth in that association is disorientation spatial and temporal. Already the reality of the affair is thwarted by its sadomasochistic grammar—so are we listening to a recounting of sexual intimacy or an intended murder? Even that grounding question becomes quicksand as Pinter introduces a classic diorama of wartorn families, the image of mothers standing on platforms while their babies are ripped away. The only throughline remains the simultaneity of love and violence, warmth and its disappearance, colliding seamlessly into one another.
April 20, 2026
Lenguaje de la Montaña me conmovió sórdidamente. Qué cosa tan más rápida, visceral y férrea.
April 25, 2020
Too lightweight to hit the point, Mountain Language is a good idea in a too-short play. I don't dislike it being a one act, but Pinter's strengths are in social rather than political commentaries. Not recommended.
July 24, 2007
Harold Pinter's MOUNTAIN LANGUAGE is a short play in four scenes inspired by the oppression of the Kurds in Turkey. As the play begins, we see a group of women waiting all day through snowfall and intimidation by dogs to visit their imprisoned husbands and sons, . Pinter's "political" plays have always explored how individuals and governments exercise power over their fellow man, and here Pinter concentrates on how oppressive regimes have broken the spirits of minorities by banning their language:
"OFFICER: Your language is dead. It is forbidden. It is not permitted to speak your mountain language in this place. You cannot speak your language to your men. It is not permitted. Do you understand? You may not speak it. It is outlawed. You may only speak the language of the capital... Your language is forbidden.. It is dead. No one is allowed to speak your language. Your language no longer exists. Any questions?"
This prohibition continues even in the case of an elderly woman who does not speak the "language of the capital". She cannot communicate with her son in the prison because her language is banned and she has no other means. The third scene, where a woman is sent through the wrong door and sees her husband hooded and shackled and realizes that sleeping with the commandant is the only way to save her husband, is especially unnerving.
MOUNTAIN LANGUAGE has the same absurdist tendencies and odd turns of phrase as Pinter's other political plays, such as "Precisely" and "Party Time", but on the whole is one of his most successful works.
"OFFICER: Your language is dead. It is forbidden. It is not permitted to speak your mountain language in this place. You cannot speak your language to your men. It is not permitted. Do you understand? You may not speak it. It is outlawed. You may only speak the language of the capital... Your language is forbidden.. It is dead. No one is allowed to speak your language. Your language no longer exists. Any questions?"
This prohibition continues even in the case of an elderly woman who does not speak the "language of the capital". She cannot communicate with her son in the prison because her language is banned and she has no other means. The third scene, where a woman is sent through the wrong door and sees her husband hooded and shackled and realizes that sleeping with the commandant is the only way to save her husband, is especially unnerving.
MOUNTAIN LANGUAGE has the same absurdist tendencies and odd turns of phrase as Pinter's other political plays, such as "Precisely" and "Party Time", but on the whole is one of his most successful works.
September 23, 2018
A short play. I don’t know how long a performance lasts, but the text is only 36 pages – and the pages were single sided, so that’s 19 sides. An explicitly political play, but Pinter’s politics tended to be an angry shout against injustices, rather than a coherent exposition of a political alternative. Pinter’s major work lacked any obvious political purpose, but he wrote about power and manipulation, language always being an instrument of domination. And so it is in Mountain Language. The army in an unnamed country has detained civilians – the situation isn’t explained, but the army is moving against insurgents. The power of the army/state is expressed through arms and uniforms, but language is also weaponised – often through the comically ridiculous, e.g., the dog stuff. The play might have been provoked by Pinter’s visit to Turkish Kurdistan, but the characters are distinctly British – this generalises the situation, but it is also an outcome of the detail of language. Mountain Language might be a minor Pinter work, but like the best of his work it is disconcerting. Its explicit politics might make Pinter’s world a little more obvious, a little less unnerving in its uncertainties, but it also pushed Pinter in new ways, slightly reconfiguring his world.
April 17, 2020
Once Harold Pinter met a woman whose husband was doomed and the woman never spoke. He understood his wife has not spoken since the man went to jail, and the woman won’t speak even though her husband is free now.
This tragedy impressed the Pinter. He wrote the prisoner’s mother who could not speak after she was free to speak her own language on stage 4 to show how the prisoners’ families were affected.
This tragedy impressed the Pinter. He wrote the prisoner’s mother who could not speak after she was free to speak her own language on stage 4 to show how the prisoners’ families were affected.
November 24, 2024
‘Mountain Language’ is an inchoate sketch of a gripping political play. This would have worked best as a longer piece— the ideas aren’t able to fully unfold in such a short form. As for ‘Ashes to Ashes’, I do enjoy language-forward, poetic, elegiac plays, but this also suffered from being a little short. Not my favourite Pinters!
November 15, 2017
Great piece of writing
December 6, 2018
Too short.
September 25, 2020
Still not liking Pinter much, but this is possibly the one I've preferred so far, maybe because it's making a relevant political comment about torture, political prisoners, oppressive regimes etc.
September 25, 2020
this play is too generic & lacks the context needed for political commentary to actually be impactful
March 26, 2021
Pretty intriguing.
July 8, 2021
I'm not sure if I simply didn't get it, but I aside from the quick social critic I cannot tell if there was another purpose for it...
October 22, 2021
Bizarre
Want to Read
March 7, 2024ملاحظة لي: لم اقرا الكتاب بعد - مسرحي بريطاني حائز على جائزة نوبل 2005
هذا العمل عن قمع الترك للغة الكردية
هذا العمل عن قمع الترك للغة الكردية
June 26, 2024
(For Mountain Language)
January 4, 2018
The play by Harold Pinter is the first of it's kind or source we've read. The play is typically short and not more than to or three scenes. The Pinter classic is deep and controversial because he is ruthless with language and hold true to the bias of people who cannot adapt to laws being implemented. The Pinter classic has a touch of sentiment that is inherent in nature because as knowledge is gained different scenarios arise to our attention like the conflict is at a police station but our hearts are led near the convicts as they are suffering for having patriotism for language that is branded illegal.
The Pinter play is a complete short play where our interest is held by the novelty of this modern post war drama where sex and illegality have broken the curtain of being unspoken. Conclusion to a review on Pinter's Mountain Language is that he is bold and became a master of the art of stage craft and writes well.
The Pinter play is a complete short play where our interest is held by the novelty of this modern post war drama where sex and illegality have broken the curtain of being unspoken. Conclusion to a review on Pinter's Mountain Language is that he is bold and became a master of the art of stage craft and writes well.
July 4, 2013
Not Pinter's best play, but undoubtedly his most concise
February 25, 2016
Pinter does better when he's longer is what I gathered from reading this.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews