A Kind of Alaska

by Harold Pinter

A Kind of Alaska had 3 performances over 12 years ago (between the 11th of October 2011 and the 6th of July 2012) at Thwaites Empire Theatre, Blackburn, Riverside Arts Centre and Rhoda McGaw Theatre

A Kind of Alaska was inspired by Awakenings by the renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks. It was first performed in the Cottesloe Theatre in London in October 1982. The original cast included Judi Dench, Paul Rogers and Anna Massey.

A middle aged woman, Deborah, who has been in a comatose state for thirty years as a result of a contracting sleeping sickness, awakes with a mind still that of a sixteen year old. She must confront a body which seems to have aged without her prior knowledge or consent.

Her sister Pauline and Pauline’s husband Hornby, who has been Deborah’s devoted doctor over three decades and is more than a little in love with her, attempt gently to ease her back to her current reality.

Deborah reawakens to a changed world, attempting to take what to her seem to be rather shocking revelations in her graceful stride.

Deborah, revived from silence after 30 years, babbles on about her parents, her dog, her boy friend and the people in her life when she was 16 years old.

Once or twice she lets slip an erotic thought, at another moment she develops a Parkinsonian tic and begins to speak of walls closing in on her. She has, she says, been trapped in a vast series of glass halls, listening to a tap dripping endlessly, dancing night after night in the midst of crushing spaces.

A Kind of Alaska could be seen to be about the sorrow of growing old. For Deborah the past is not barren but packed with love, hope, clamour and life. It is maybe a metaphor for the feeling of “Where did the time go?” “What did I do while it was passing?” “Why did I make so little of it?”

Deborah ends the play with the ironic observation about her sister and brother in law that can only go so far towards accepting the realities that they have allowed her to know. She sums up the few facts she knows with poignant dignity. “I think I have the matter in proportion. Thank you!” It is a quiet, unpretentious tribute to human courage and resilience.

For a description of the characters, see under Cast below.