By Milo

“Not bad for a guy who played a fat bully in Harry Potter.” Their words, not mine, the couple sitting next to me that was. I’d go further though and say that the now leaner and slender Harry Melling was quite exceptional playing the character of ‘Lamb’ in Harold Pinter’s ‘The Hothouse’.

The play, which is described as “a dark exploration of Kafkaesque incarceration and torture”, is one that has a heavy subject matter, but is also without a context, meaning we are thrown straight into drama without having anything established. All we know is that it is set in some kind of institution and there are mysterious goings on around the building.

Though the underlining themes are dark, there’s a really punctuating mix of comedy, which with the theatrical delivery does at times make it stray into sitcom/soap humour. The upside is that the cast are composed of incredibly experienced and talented actors like Simon Russell Beale, John Simm, and I can now add to that, Harry Melling. His character ‘Lamb’ is responsible for checking all of the lock’s of the institutions doors, a sort of caretaker, but what we see of him is a character who is socially awkwardly and talks at a very fast pace; a bumbling idiot, if you will. Where Harry Melling really shone, was in the heart of the dark themes of the play; the torture scenes.

The institution conducts experiments on the patients, and in this instance, ‘Lamb’ was strapped into a chair and hooked up to wires. The audience then witnessed him being shot with electricity, coursing through the wires, resulting in the character shouting and convulsing. This stunned me, and the rest of the audience, into silence as we sat and watched this powerful, and unpleasant scene. The credit goes to Harry Melling, for putting on such a convincing display, of which I didn’t know he was capable. Added to that the production value of this play were top notch, and really added to the atmosphere.

The Hothouse can be deemed a dark comedy, as it made me laugh, and it also made me sit at the edge of my seat in a state of unease. Having not known what to expect, both from the play, as I had not read it before, and from Harry Melling, whom I’ve only seen in a limited capacity as Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter, I must say my expectations were exceeded. Harry’s performance was excellent and I for one will now be following his career a lot more closely.