Masker's Studio Theatre

20^th to 23^rd November 1996

A Kind of Alaska

A Kind of Alaska was first staged in 1982 as part of the triple Other Places and won Harold Pinter a Best Play of the Year Award. It was inspired by Dr. Oliver Sack’s Book Awakenings which describes his work with patients suffering from a strange epidemic illness which spread throughout the world in the 1920’s and was popularly known as ‘ Sleeping Sickness’. Many died but those who survived sank into a coma - sometimes dimly aware of their surroundings but always motionless and speechless. 40 years later, with the development of the drug L-DOPA, they erupted into life once more ....... Pinter recreates such an awakening. Deborah has been ‘asleep’ (in ‘a kind of Alaska’) for nearly 30 years. Now she comes to life again and gradually and poignantly tries to adjust to the world around her and to those who have given their lives to her care.

One For The Road

One For The Road was premiered in 1984 and was subsequently included in the triple bill Other Places. Like A Kind of Alaska it won the play of the year award but its tone is very different. It is a short, angry play; harsh, disturbing and uncompromising in its exploration of psychological torture and the corrupting effect of total power. It is influenced by Pinter’s involvement with Amnesty International but he deliberately avoids identifying his characters with any particular country. That, after all, is the point: in an interview on the play and its politics Pinter says “There are at least 90 countries that practice torture as an accepted routine. It is only too easy to ignore the horror of what’s going on around us. The facts this play refers to are facts I wish the audience to know about, to recognise.”