Reviews for Mountain Language

The average rating for Mountain Language based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-08-08 00:00:00 S. David Wolfe 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. ***

Review # 2 was written on 2015-06-07 00:00:00 Ria Venter 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: