-Title: The Dumb Waiter

-Subtitle: Comedy drama in one act

-Editorial: faber and faber

-Year of publication: 1957

-Place of publication: London

-Ben: Seems to be the thinking head of the two. He doesn’t take so much care of where they are… or why are there. Sometimes he ignores Gus, and lost his patience with him, but seems to be a rasonable man. Although, he is a man who seems to try to hide a secret relationate with that place. He wores comfortable suits and doesn’t change in all play.

-Gus: He’s the other who is in "there". He frequently asks for everything, something that makes Ben angry. But he wants to know why they are there or what it is. He seems to be the "fool" character with the things he do or he say. In the moment where he has discover something he can’t stand in on a place, but he want to know everything.

Two persons are in a basement talking each othe about typical things like the news of a newspaper. After that, they start to talk about their likes and interests. Lately, someone hand over through the door a packet with twelve matches. Since that moment, Gus starts to make questions that makes turn angry to Ben. After that converstaion, Gus confess that they must go out of "there", that he feels like if they were there for years. After Ben gives the orders to Gus, and he starts to ask why "they" send matches to them if they know that there they haven’t got gas and since there, he asks who are up there. Finally, when Gus seems to know what’s going on there, Ben aims him with a revolver, and they stand quietly for a long time…

The place where the plot passes by is in a basement room with 2 beds, situated in Birmingham. The time is not clearly definite in the plot, but maybe we can situate it in the year of publication.

The author plays with the conversation of only two persons, making short statements to make faster chitchat. Uses a standard level of language because the position of the characters (in sometimes, they appear militars), and not uses the frequent repetitions of dialogue like in other plays, and makes a large dialogue, only stopped by Gus in a few ocasions where he "go out" the room.

This is one of the representants of what the theatre of absurd is. In all the play, we only have two characters talking each other, asking questions about life, likes, dislikes or other thing. In the way that there is not a concrete data in the text, we can’t know if its influenced by the time that where is situated the play.