Teatro Inglés I
THE DUMB WAITER
1. Information about the play: title, author, type of work, genre, time and place written, date of first production, publisher, etc.
The Dumb Waiter is a one-act play written by Harold Pinter in 1957. It was first produced at the Hampstead Theatre Club on the 21th of January, 1960 and transferred to the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square opening on the 8th of March, 1960 with the same cast. Ben was played by Nicholas Selby and Gus by George Tovey. The Director was James Roose Evans, the Designer Michael Young. It was presented both at Hampstead and the Royal Court at the same time with The Room, also written by Pinter. A version for television was broadcasted by the BBC on July 23, 1985.
2. Information about the author Harold Pinter was born in the working-class neighbourhood of the East-London Hackney in 1930, and died in 2008, also in London. He is claimed as one of the most complex and challenging post-World War II dramatists. He was the son of a Jewish tailor, and had to exile to Cornwell with the outbreak of the IIWW. When he came back, he started to study at the Academy of Dramatic Arts which he left two years later, to begin acting with a company as a professional actor, appearing under the name of David Baron. He also started writing for the stage, directing and acting on his own plays. His writings soon became famous, and started appearing in radio, television and films, apart from being performed on stage. Pinter was a known objector of wars and became a great advocate of the human rights. In 2005, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
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His plays have ambivalent plot, characters, and endings, and focus on betrayal, jealousy, and sexual politics. Characters tend to appear in pairs, and their stereotyped relations tend to be broken by the appearance of a stranger. The action usually takes place in a closed room, giving the impression of being imprisoned. Dialogues are of vital importance in Pinter’s plays, in which characters’ colloquial speech consists of an ambivalent conversation that is more relevant when silences are present. This combination of speech, pauses and hesitations show the characters’ own alienation, their difficulties when communicating and the layers of meaning that can be contained in every statement. (Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica)
3. Content, theme and symbols
Harold Pinter renewed the British theatre in the 60’s and 70’s. He revolutionized it with the use of working class characters -who are victims of the meaningless of modern life-, plots and avant-garde elements influenced by other European authors.
The story presents two killers, Ben and Gus, waiting in a room for instructions, and an absent character, Wilson, who apparently communicates through a dumbwaiter. The play brings up the idea of society's alienation of the individual. The situation Ben and Gus face reminds of the army or a workplace where people have to obey orders from a superior. It could be also be interpreted as a religion in which messages from God are relayed to its followers, who are expected to obey the orders. This play in particular has the ability to convey many varied ideas simultaneously: in a violent but comic way, it works like a puzzle or a game of life where there are lot of hints that must be fit together in the end.
We see the treatment of the silence as a device to increase the tension of the play. The author also deals with the theme of the violence hidden under the language and with the routine, making use of some symbols like the dumb waiter, the speaking tube, the toilet or the envelope (whose meanings are explained below in point 6: “Characterisation through language: non-verbal communication – interruptions”)
The title of the play also could stand for different meanings: it could refer to the device on the wall; to Gus who waits for someone to tell him what to do while he
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is unaware of his own future death; to Ben who also waits for orders; and to their attempts to play waiters when dealing with the orders coming from upstairs. Each of these interpretations work together to present the main theme of the play: the servitude to which poor people are forced by superiors in a capitalist world.
4. Structure of the play: -
Acts and scenes: divisions of the play into acts and scenes: one act
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Analysis of the plot structure -> stages of the story: one stage
This play only counts with one act, which is something unusual, but it has sense, like the other features, if we take into account the characteristics of the theatre of absurd. Harold Pinter created absurdist plays, like this one, without traditional plots and with characters who engaged in circular, purposeless conversations. However, the play is divided in four parts. There is also only one stage: ‘A basement room. Two beds, flat against the back wall. A serving hatch, closed, between the beds. A door to the kitchen and lavatory, left. A door to a passage, right.’
This story is about two hit men, Ben (the senior partner) and Gus (submissive to Ben). They are waiting in a basement room for a job to do. Ben is most of the time reading the newspaper and Gus, in the other hand is constantly going to the toilet and asking questions to Ben. Gus wants to make some tea and they argue about the expressions “put the kettle on” and “light the kettle”. Ben becomes more aggressive as they argue. Then Ben continues reading the newspaper and also reads some excerpts to Gus, basically to change the conversation, as Gus is all the time trying to talk about their job. Between the two beds there is a ‘dumb waiter’. They find some notes ordering food inside it and decide to send some food for the person who is asking for it. As the orders continue coming they get angry as they do not have any more food. Ben talks to the person above through the dumb waiter’s speaking tube to say him that. While Gus is in the bathroom having some water Ben is still talking through the tube as the person above is saying something to him. By the answers given by Ben we can guess that their next victim it just coming to the room. Ben calls Gus as they have to be prepared. Then, the door from where the victim is supposed to enter opens and Ben sees Gus ‘stripped of his jacket, waistcoat, tie and gun.’
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The two friends stay staring at each other in silence for a while, Ben pulling his gun on Gus, when the curtain comes down. By that end we can guess that Gus was the victim of this assignment and Ben had to kill him. For some critics there is not any plot in this play, but we think that although this is not a typical plot we can see some different parts on it. For example, the climax occurs when Ben pulls his gun on Gus, at the end of the play and the falling action would be when they are staring at each other on silence before the curtain comes down.
5. Passing of time: •
Time that the performance of the play lasts
It is not possible to know how much time the play can last without going to a performance. However, we have looked up and have found some modern performances that more or less last no more than an hour: The Dumb Waiter at the Trafalgar Studios One, 2007, 55 minutes.
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Time covered in the play: linguistic references
‘GUS. I mean, you come into a place when it's still dark, you come into a room you've never seen before, you sleep all day, you do your job, and then you go away in the night again.’ This shows the reader/spectator the job covers a day time, although it does not tell exactly the time passed since the beginning of the story until the end.
‘GUS. Have you noticed the time that tank takes to fill?’ and after the discussion about their job, their interests, ‘The lavatory flushes off left’ It is a symbol implying the passing of time, reminding them that time goes by. ‘GUS. Why did you stop the car this morning, in the middle of that road? BEN (lowering the paper). I thought you were asleep. GUS. I was, but I woke up when you stopped. You did stop, didn't you? Pause. In the middle of that road. It was still dark, don't you remember? I looked out. It was all misty. I thought perhaps you wanted to kip, but you were sitting up dead
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straight, like you were waiting for something. BEN. I wasn't waiting for anything. GUS. I must have fallen asleep again. What was all that about then? Why did you stop? BEN (picking up the paper). We were too early’. This discussion shows that they usually appear in the place they have been appointed to, early in the morning. Therefore, they have to spend the day in that place waiting for their instructions. ‘BEN. We're not staying long’
‘GUS. When's he going to get in touch?’ Gus is getting tired of waiting, so we can imagine it is getting a long time for Wilson to get in touch.
‘Still, I'll be glad when it's over tonight’ implies that the job ends at the end of the day, they carry out their duty then.
‘GUS. I've been wanting a cup of tea all night!’; this shows that they have spent the night in the room, waiting for their job.
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Techniques used to allow the reader to know exactly the time covered by the play and the time passing between the different stages
Silences are specially the ones which change the topics, or the stages in the oneact play, the moments in which each of the characters have their instructions of what to do without saying a word. These are the explanations that can only be seen on stage, or read when we have the written play. ‘Silence. GUS shakes his head and exits. BEN lies back and reads. The lavatory chain is pulled once off left, but the lavatory does not flush. BEN whistles at an item in the paper. GUS re-enters.’
‘GUS brings out the flattened cigarette packet and examines it.’
‘GUS picks up a small bag by his bed and brings out a packet of tea. He examines it and looks up.’
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‘BEN. Get out of it. Pause. GUS. Eh, that must have been here, in Birmingham.’ ‘GUS stares at him, puts the matches in his pockets, goes to his bed and brings a revolver from under the pillow. He goes to the door, opens it, looks out and shuts it.’
‘GUS exits, left, BEN looks after him. He then takes his revolver from under the pillow and checks it for ammunition. GUS re-enters.’ ‘GUS (reading). Soup of the day. Liver and onions. Jam tart. A pause. GUS looks at BEN. BEN takes the note and reads it. He walks slowly to the hatch. GUS follows. Ben looks into the hatch but not up it. GUS puts his hand on BEN's shoulder. BEN throws it off. GUS puts his finger to his mouth. He leans on the hatch and swiftly looks up it. BEN flings him away in alarm. BEN looks at the note. He throws his revolver on the bed and speaks with decision.’
‘BEN. Exactly Pause. GUS. We don't do anything different?’
‘They turn quickly, their eyes meet. BEN turns back to his paper. Silence. BEN throws his paper down. BEN. KAW! He picks up the paper and looks at it.’
Other clues can be Gus’s goings to the toilet, or Ben’s readings of the newspaper once again. ‘GUS. Don't you ever get a bit fed up? Silence.
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BEN reads. GUS feels in the pocket of his jacket, which hangs on the bed.’
‘BEN turns back and reads, GUS yawns and speaks through his yawn.’ ‘GUS rises, and shivers. Excuse me. He exits through the door on the left. BEN remains sitting on the bed, still. The lavatory chain is pulled once off left, but the lavatory does not flush. Silence. GUS reenters and stops inside the door, deep in thought. He looks at BEN, then walks slowly across to his own bed. He is troubled. He stands, thinking. He turns and looks at BEN. He moves a few paces towards him.’
‘GUS. I’m going to have a glass of water. He exits. BEN brushes dust off his clothes and shoes. The whistle in the speaking-tube blows. He goes to it, takes the whistle out and puts the tube to his ear. He listens. He puts it to his mouth.’ Also the comings up and down of the dumb waiter show some kind of passing of time.
‘There is a loud clatter and racket in the bulge of wall between the beds, of something descending. They grab their revolvers, jump up and face the wall. The noise comes to a stop. Silence. They look at each other. BEN gestures sharply towards the wall. GUS approaches the wall slowly. He bangs it with his revolver. It is hollow. BEN moves to the head of his bed, his revolver cocked. GUS puts his revolver on his bed and pats along the bottom of the center panel. He finds a rim. He lifts the panel. Disclosed is a serving-hatch, a dumb waiter. A wide box is held by pulleys. GUS peers into the box. He brings out a pieces of paper.’
‘The box descends with a clatter and bang. BEN levels his revolver. GUS goes to the box and brings out a piece of paper.’
‘The box descends. They turn about. GUS goes to the hatch and brings out a note.’
‘The box descends. BEN jumps up. GUS collects the note.’
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‘The box in the shaft comes down behind them. The noise is this time accompanied by a shrill whistle, as it falls. GUS rushes to the hatch and seizes the note.’
6. Characterisation through language: Description of the two characters of the play, Gus and Ben: the way they are linguistically constructed.
This play provides clear examples of power exertion reflected in language. We will see from the way the characters speak that Harold Pinter gradually exposes their inner strains and fear, alternating it with hilarity to create an unbearable tension, an atmosphere of fear, horror, and mystery. The austere language used in this play (which some call Pinteresque in reference to Pinter’s equivocal and halting dialogues, and apparently trivial utterances and silences that disguise a menacing situation.) provokes a threatening unease.
The play lacks explicit descriptions of the characters but from the beginning it is easy to identify two different types of characters: Ben and Gus. Ben and Gus are the only characters on the stage (then another absent character, Wilson, who is of a great importance, appears but not on the stage).
As the play goes by the audience discovers that Ben is the senior member of the team and Gus is the submissive junior member.
We are able to assume several aspects of the language that each of the characters uses and these features are the ones which really characterize Gus and Ben, even Wilson. It becomes clear that they are professional killers, who are waiting to receive instructions from someone whose identity doesn’t appear on stage.
Gus is a docile and obedient person, a feature we can notice through his language full of uncertainty and hesitation: he is always asking all these questions that the audience also wants to know the answers but Ben does not answer:
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“I wanted to ask you something”, or similar, are often repeated by Gus:
“What time is he getting in touch?” “Why did you stop the car this morning in the middle of that road?” “Who is it going to be tonight?” “Who’s got it now?” “If they moved out, who’s moved in?”
Gus's questions become more and more nonsensical. As the tension rises the physicality of the two characters increases accordingly.
Nevertheless, the audience can appreciate that Gus is always obeying Ben’s commands, he is more sensitive and has a conscience about their job (hit men). He is also bored by the routine of his lower class life:
"…you come into a place when it's still dark, you come into a room you've never seen before, you sleep all day, you do your job, and then you go away in the night again."
Some expressions also convey the idea of Gus as a weak character. This becomes obvious through the large amount of:
modal auxiliaries: could, might, must, would adverbs: maybe, perhaps, probably verbs: wonder, know (with negative polarity); suppose; think; and the perception verb seem
Ben is quite more aggressive and uses imperatives to show his superiority:
“Who’s the senior partner, me or you?”
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“I know how to occupy my time” “Who took the call, me or you?” and expressions such as: “You’d better eat them quick” “You’ve got a job to do” “You’ll have to wait” “You’ll have to do without it” “You’d better get ready anyway” “You shouldn’t shout like that” and so on We can describe Ben’s attitudes when interacting with Guss as tonelessly, powerfully and menacing. A good example is the argument about the kettle that ends up with Ben shouting and acting aggressively towards Gus: in the conversation about the kettle we can see that Ben speaks to Gus in a violent way that increases as the conversation continues. They are arguing about the expression “light the kettle” and “put the kettle on”. GUS: How can you light the kettle? BEN: It's a figure of speech! Light the kettle. It's a figure of speech! GUS: I've never heard it. BEN: Light the kettle! It's common usage! GUS: I think you've got it wrong. BEN (menacing): What do you mean? GUS: They say put on the kettle. BEN (taut): Who says? They stare at each other, breathing hard. Ben’s language becomes more violent as he insults and intimidates Gus, for example when he asks Gus about the last time he saw his mother: BEN (Deliberately.): I have never in all my life heard anyone say put on the kettle. GUS. I bet my mother used to say it. BEN. Your mother? When did you last see your mother? As Gus is chocked he loses his capability to speak and that makes Ben doubly strong
GUS. I don't know, about-BEN. Well, what are you talking about your mother for?
They stare.
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GUS, I'm not trying to be unreasonable. I'm just trying to point out something to you. GUS. Yes, but-BEN. Who's the senior partner here, me or you? GUS. You. BEN. I'm only looking after your interests, Gus. You've got to learn, mate. GUS. Yes, but I've never heard-BEN (vehemently). Nobody says light the gas! What does the gas light?. GUS. What does the gas--? BEN (grabbing him with two hands by the throat, at arm's length). THE KETTLE, YOU FOOL! GUS takes the hands from his throat.
Ben is evasive and reluctant to respond or talk about the mission or to answer Gus’s questions. Instead Ben states other questions such as:
“What’s the matter with you?” “What do you mean…?” or an intimidating “What?”
That forces Gus to change the course of the conversation and talk about unimportant things like the crockery, the lavatory, the bed sheets, etc.
Although during the play Ben seems to be superior to Gus, at the end they take the same type of role in relation to someone else, in this case they both become victims of Wilson, the absent character that does not even speak during the whole play.
Ben does not control the situation as we might believe at first sight. We can guess this by the expressions:
“it could be any time”
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“they must have been pretty quick” “he’s probably only rented it”
At the end, Gus is no longer the submissive partner. The repetition of the expression “I told you” shows this. But he is still unable to understand that he is the one who Ben will kill. Another significant feature is the one noticeable through some words taken from their social class language that show awareness of their low class status, especially from Gus (seen before in the linguistic analysis)
The non verbal means of communication associated with Gus’ and Ben’s verbal language are also something of great importance. In relation to the way the characters interact with each other in this play, we will see some devices used by Harold Pinter: silence, repetitions and interruptions. The theatrical effect of the use of repetitions and silence is to suggest the idea of alienation and the approach of death, but with a sinister and violent touch.
Silence:
Silence is a fundamental feature of the characters’ language, especially Ben’s, since it increases the feeling of tension, and normally precedes a moment of great violence. Thus the tension in this play derives from the long silences between speeches and also from the ambiguous vernacular speeches themselves. Pinter said that silence is a form of nakedness, and that speech is an attempt to cover this nakedness.
One of Pinter's comments on his own work is his remarks about two kinds of silence ("two silences") in the speech entitled "Writing for the Theatre": “There are two silences. One when no word is spoken. The other when perhaps a torrent of language is being employed. This speech is speaking of a language locked beneath it….. The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear….... One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness….. I think that we communicate only too well, in our silence, in what is unsaid, and that what takes place is a continual evasion….”
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One of the "two silences" is the "Pinter pause", when no word is spoken, and when Pinter's stage directions indicate pause and silence, when his characters are not speaking at all.
Repetition:
Repetition is another important aspect, since it shows Gus’ submissiveness, and how Ben controls him. We can notice that Gus's toneless echo, for example, is actually a form of silence that seeks to avoid the performance of the murder. This notion of mechanization in Gus’ behaviour is also shown in the excerpt where Ben gives the instructions to Gus and makes him repeat them one by one.
Interruptions:
Ben's delays and interruptions, which have a significant role in this play, are also a form of silence. His mechanical behaviour can be seen in the way he introduces conversation about the news in the paper, which occurs three times during the play almost identically.
Usually Guss and Ben don’t break the silence themselves but the sound of an inanimate object —like the dumb waiter, the speaking tube, the toilet and the envelope —which interrupts the silence, and also makes them go back into discussion.
For example, the dumb waiter (which is a small lift used to transport meals between floors in restaurants, whose name indicates muteness) is a metaphor for the type of communication existing between Ben and Guss. It serves as a symbol for the broken, one-sided communication: just as the dumb waiter restricts language (in the form of a note or the speaking tube) to one person at a time, Ben and Gus don’t talk in common dialogue with one other. Rather, they speak to each other, not with one another. At the end the dumb waiter becomes an agent for murder because Ben receives the order to kill Gus through it.
The toilet is another example of interruption: it flushes on a delay, so that after Gus’ each trip to the bathroom there is a silence from the toilet—one that complements the many silences in conversation—and then it interrupts the men later.
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Finally another object that interrupts the situation is an envelope that contains twelve matches. It is pushed under the door.
Expressions of physical violence:
As it was mentioned before, in the second part of the play, Ben's dialogue causes the physical violence in the argument over "light the kettle" / “put on the kettle”. The debate produces the men's first physical confrontation after much verbal arguments, in which Ben reminds Gus that he has seniority, Ben chokes Gus and screams "THE KETTLE, YOU FOOL!"
Gus's frequent trips to the bathroom:
They symbolise the dull routine of life, because is one of the most banal and repetitive actions the human being performs. Gus is aware of it, while Ben seems less concerned with his own repetitive life (he does not go to the bathroom throughout the whole play), and feels they are lucky for having their jobs.
Martin Esslin wrote in his book “The Peopled Wound: The Plays of Harold Pinter” (1970):
"Pinter's dialogue is as tightly - perhaps more tightly - controlled than verse,"….. "Every syllable, every inflection, the succession of long and short sounds, words and sentences, is calculated to nicety. And precisely the repetitiousness, the discontinuity and the circularity of ordinary vernacular speech are here used as formal elements with which the poet can compose his linguistic ballet."… “Pinter refuses to provide rational justifications for action, but offers existential glimpses of bizarre or terrible moments in people's lives”
Harold Pinter uses the absurd in his plays, reflective of Beckett's Waiting for Godot, as a study of human relationships.
7. Language and setting:
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Reference to the location of the action – its relevance The effect of having the play set in one place without time interruption
The effect of this aspect is the feeling of the characters being imprisoned in one room. It is a space from they cannot escape, or they do not want to because they are afraid of doing it. The room is quite symbolic when we analyse all its features. First of all, the room is seen as a cell where they both are more or less being punished for their crimes, as they are murderers. The feeling of imprisoning is stronger with the fact that there is no window to see the outside world.
For example, the door that is on the right side of the room, exits to a corridor and can be seen or interpreted as birth and death, either as a symbol of the nature of Ben and Gus’s job, or as their own birth and death, as it will be seen at the end of the play; birth seen as Gus’s realisation of Ben’s betrayal, and death as one of theirs.
The other door, situated at the left side goes to a kitchen and a bathroom, where food follows a in and out way, and being the bathroom the symbol of Gus’s repetitive way of living.
Finally, the whole room can be seen as life itself, waiting for orders from an upper being, normally God, who is the one who leads really our fates and lives.
8. The response of the audience
The Dumb Waiter was first produced at Hampstead Theatre Club on 21 January 1960. It was directed by James Roose Evans with Nicholas Selby as Ben and George Tovey as Gus. As we can see from the article below, although “The Dumb Waiter” was one of Pinter’s first plays, it was quite well received by the general audience and the critics.
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According to the article: "Not Funny Enough", published in Versita MetaPress:
“In 1957 Pinter wrote his first play, The Room. It was staged in the same year, and the reviews of the performance were favourable. Two more plays, The Birthday Party and Dumb Waiter, appeared in the same year, but their first performances failed to repeat the former success. Today these two plays are among his most frequently staged pieces; some critics even consider The Birthday Party one of the best achievements of contemporary British theatre, but its undisputable quality was not recognised immediately. The first production ran only a week, and it took most of the critics some time to realise that there was more to it than mere ”verbal anarchy”, as Milton Shulman (1958) labelled what later became known as typical pinteresque dialogue”…….”In 1959, Germany saw the world premiere of The Dumb Waiter, and in the same year, The Birthday Party reappeared in England and abroad. Pinter’s successful career was acquiring firm grounds. That is the time when The Caretaker (written in 1958) came into existence. The environment, in which the play appeared, was favourable and friendly to its author and to his work”…... “This early play by Harold Pinter was enthusiastically accepted by the general public and the critics”
The influence of this play on other works can be taken as good critic as well:
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on the movie “Pulp Fiction”:
“…In depicting the humdrum concerns of such grisly characters, Pinter predates Quentin Tarantino by a good four decades. Anyone who’s enjoyed the bleak gallows humour of Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs will find familiarity here. Hell, they even where the same regulation-issue black and white suits…” (Source: Chortle. The UK Comedy Guide - The Dumb Waiter reviewed by Steve Bennett)
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on the movie “In Bruges”:
“In Bruges” owes a considerable debt to Harold Pinter’s early play “The Dumb Waiter” (two killers, awaiting instructions, killing time) and, as with Pinter, the banter is very much the thing here. Source: Movie review: 'In Bruges': “If the wit, characters are killers... It must be Belgium” by Michael Phillips, Tribune movie critic - February 6, 2008
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Other realizations:
In 2004, Douglas Hodge directed Toby Jones and Jason Watkins in the Oxford Playhouse Production. In 1987 Robert Altman directed John Travolta and Tom Conti in the film version of this Pinter's play.
The critically-acclaimed 50th-anniversary stage revival directed by Harry Burton at Trafalgar Studios, London, from 2 February to 24 March 2007, starred Lee Evans as Gus and Jason Isaacs as Ben. (Source: article “Dumb Waiter limited run” - Sonia Friedman)
Bibliography:
CAUCE, Revista de Filología y su Didáctica, n° 24, 2001 /págs. 259-268 AN EXPLORATION OF MODALITY IN PINTER'S THE DUMB WAITER ELIDA LEÓN - Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador, Caracas, Venezuela
Internet Sites:
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“Pinter Education Pack” article by Sarah Stephenson (www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk) www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/.../The%20Caretaker%20&%20The%20Dumb %20Waiter.pdf -
Article “Dumb Waiter limited run” - January 3, 2007 - Sonia Friedman Productions press release. http://www.soniafriedman.com/news_press_releases/dumb_waiter_limited_run.
Versita MetaPress: Central European Science Journals. From research article: "not Funny Enough" to the Nobel Prize: Reception of Harold Pinter Internationally and in Slovenia - Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - ISSN 1451-5342 (Print) 18205682 (Online) http://versita.metapress.com/content/n1142733261x8202/
“Theatre of the Absurd” - article by Jerome P. Crabb published - September 3, 2006. http://www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/theatre_of_the_absurd.html
Britannica online encyclopedia article on The Dumb Waiter (play by Pinter) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1093441/The-Dumb-Waiter
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