Angry Puffin/Ptarmigan Rebel Dramaturgy: The Dumb Waiter

Performed by two Glasgow actors who take on the roles of London killers Ben and Gus, this real time one act play is considered one of the finest of Pinter's plays. Indeed, it is often described as "distilled Pinter". 

It is a dark comedy, with hidden meanings, at once light and frivolous, yet laced with real Pinter menace and is a must-see for all lovers of post war modern theatre. 

Performed by Victor Bruce Biddulph and Shaun McCue, this production follows from their last success with Flying With Crows which ran in August 2015. 

Websters Theatre is a great venue for this traditionally set play, and is located conveniently opposite Kelvinbridge Underground on Great Western Road. There are only three performances to catch, starting on 19th February 2016. Tickets only available online.


What was the inspiration for this performance?
We fell in love with Pinter. He was an actor, and wrote his plays for actors and the audience. This play has entertainment values but it is also one of the deepest plays ever written. It is distilled Pinter. Like Beckett, it speaks to the actor.



How did you go about gathering the team for it?

We always worked together. After we met we started working immediately. We all share a mutual love for the theatre, therefore we were all drawn together.

How did you become interested in making performance?
We have took different paths to come to the same realisation: that the stage is the best place for anyone who wants to be working as an actor.




Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
We start from the beginning: we know nothing. We continually remind ourselves that there is always more to know and we work hard to find out what we don't know, and then present what we know.




What do you hope that the audience will experience?
We hope the audience will experience Pinter's work as Pinter intended. We can only do our best, then the audience tells us if we have managed to interpret and show believable human beings in the world Harold Pinter created.




What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
We hate this question. To our mind, this is a bureaucrat question. We don't think this way. We don't develop strategies to "shape the audience experience".


Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

Yes, we do. We - like Pinter, like Chekhov, like Beckett - love theatre and Art. It is Art and theatre we serve.


Are there any other questions that might help me to understand the meaning of dramaturgy for you in your work?

Ask yourself why anyone writes a play. Ask yourself why people go to see plays, why Art is important, why the loss of Art is a disaster. Ask yourself why the heart beats.

Pinter goes East (having been West)

It seems that Scotland is getting a special dose of hot Pinter action this month. It's not enough that Dominic Hill decided to use Betrayal as his manifesto for the Citizens (his first play as artistic director, and the message that he is going to recall the theatre's past glory as a place for new visions of classic scripts was as pointed as a Pinter pause): the Brunton, over in Edinburgh has invited European Arts Company over for a double bill of The Dumb Waiter and The Lover.

Back when I was at school, The Dumb Waiter was a favourite for Advanced Level English. I have no idea why: I wasn't too bad at reading and writing, but Pinter was a closed book to me. These days, there is nothing I love more than a post-match analysis of his dread absurdism: I spent the bus journey back from Hill's Betrayal loudly explaining that the husband had not had loads of affairs, contrary to his claims. In the classroom, I had no idea why the two hit-men were sitting in the basement, or who was sending them messages.

There a few directions I could go here: one is to wonder why my teachers thought that two Shakespeare plays and one Pinter was representative enough of drama's history. Another is to point out that reading plays - as opposed to watching them - completely misses the point and is a bloody strange thing to have on the curriculum in the first place. However, I am content to accept that the purpose was just to make sure that those students who might have an inclination to enjoy theatre were quickly disabused of the notion, by the plodding pace of classroom analysis and the joyless antidote in The Spark Notes. 

The Dumb Waiter is one of Pinter's earlier works - it might have inspired In Bruges, but it owes a fair whack to Beckett. Only his pair of alienated loners have got guns and where Godot was silent, their mysterious master whistles down a tube at them.

The Lover is less of a menacing comedy and more of an offbeat episode from Everything you Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask. Any more details, and I am ruining the plot.

The Dumb Waiter & The Lover will be at Brunton Theatre on Tuesday 27 March.