The Dumb Waiter

The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter

Although I have spent many working hours in the area around Earls Barton, I was never involved in the local amateur dramatics group until my first visit to the small but more than adequately provided All Saints Church Hall.  I was greeted very kindly by Linda Barratt who escorted me and the Regional Representative Keith Loynes via the refreshment facility to our privileged comfortable front seats in the auditorium.

The play ‘The Dumb Waiter’ written by Harold Pinter dates back to 1957 and is described by a publication as ‘Small but perfectly formed’ and is considered to be one of the best early plays by Pinter. The one act play and the plot is simple, it is set in the windowless basement of a building where two ‘hit-men’ have been accommodated until their victim arrives. The two assassins, Ben (played by Robin Hillman) and Gus (played by Richard Llewellyn) await their casualty, biding their time to their individual intelligence levels. Ben, who portrays the senior member of the ‘team’, spends most of his time lying on his bed reading his newspaper and occasionally relating excerpts to his simpler and ‘new’ assistant Gus. Gus’s character reminds me of a child who is constantly asking, often perhaps complex or stupid questions, many of which are ignored by his supervisory colleague. I have to say that both actors depict their characters superbly, pulling the audience into their difficult world convincingly. My congratulations go to both Robin and Richard for their excellent performance and characterisation that was required by the Director.

The third character is constructed not personified and is the ‘dumb waiter’ who appears to control both Ben and Gus in mysterious ways by ordering occasional food orders that mystifies the pair and drags the violent nature of Ben to Gus who is transfixed by the nature of the third party. Now let’s add an old form of communication to the story. Attached to the dumb waiter is a tube complete with a police type tubular whistle. After some usage by the two assassins, who apologise for their lack of requested sustenance, Gus departs to the bathroom and Ben finds out, via the communication tube, that their victim has arrived. Their plan to finish with Gus behind the prey as he enters the room and Ben to the fore with both of them equipped with hand guns. As Gus is not in the room this results in a confused situation where Gus partially stripped is viciously returned to the room to be greeted with a long mutual silence prior to close of performance.

The set was constructed and displayed in the way you would expect a dilapidated basement to be following conversion into a bedroom. This was fully detailed down to the dirt on the doors, partly missing architraves and dishevelled sleeping arrangements. My compliments to the set designer and constructor Dave Lawrence who was also the Director. The dumb waiter worked brilliantly and the whole set was convincing. 

Thank you again for the invitation and I look forward to your next production later in the year.    

Nigel Hancocks

 

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