Plays by HAROLD PINTER
The Dumb Waiter, The Collection & Party Time
THE DUMB WAITER( a play in one act)
The first representation took place at the Hampstead Theatre Club on 21st January, 1960.
CAST:
Ben: Ben is a gangster, the more intelligent of both.
Gus: Is a gangster too, but almost the play starts, we can see that he is so silly, he can’t tie his laces.
SPACE:
The whole play takes place in a basement room, where there is a kitchen, which is under ground. There are two beds and a serving hatch between them. There are two doors, one to the kitchen and lavatory on the left, and other to a passage on the right.
TIME:
We don’t know what time is it, the time is any moment of the day and the duration of the play.
SUMMARY:
The play starts with the two gangsters in the room, Ben reads a newspaper and Gus is trying to tie his laces, having a lot of problems.
They are waiting for a job, and to pass the time they talk about a lot of topics. Often, Gus makes some questions that are so stupid and Ben gets angry with him. He insults Gus when that happens, and it happens during all the play; the repetition is so important in this play, Pinter uses that resource to make the play repetitive. Also is so important the silence, either with the aggressive language either with the silence, Pinter obtains the prolongation of the time, to stress the waiting.
When the first note arrives, they get surprised, because the kitchen is closed. As they don’t know what to do, they put all the food they have in a plate an send it up.
This will repeat more times, they also doubt if they have to kill this man, or if it is a woman, because they are waiting orders and no one can interrupt them. Here we see the connection with the title, The dumb waiter; they think that who is up there is stupid because the kitchen was closed a long time ago.
At the end, the speaking tube blows and they get surprised again, Ben stars talking with the person on the other side. After have talked, the tube blows again and Ben receives the orders to the job, they are ready.
The whole play has similarities with others, like Waiting for Godot, two people waiting for something, talking about things without sense, and the plays are plenty of absurd situations.
The ending is a good example, in both plays they say that are going but, they stay quiet.
THE COLLECTION
This play was first presented on 18 June 1962, at the Aldwych Theatre. The play’s characters are:
HARRY: A man in his forties.
JAMES: A man in his thirties.
STELLA: A woman in her thirties.
BILL: A man in his late twenties.
The stage is divided on three areas, and each of them are distinct and separate from the other. At left, Harry’s house, well decorated furniture. We see the living-room, the hall, and the kitchen.
On the right of the stage, James’ flat, with contemporary furnishing, only the living-room. On the centre there is a telephone box on a promontory. This telephone box will be used to doing calls to Harry’s house.
Harry’s house is on Belgravia and James’ flat is in Chelsea, so we have references.
About the time we only know that it is autumn, but we don’t know the year it is.
The title has a relation with a Chinese figures collection that Stella has, and it may be also a dresses collection that is going to be presented in Leeds.
ABSTRACT:
The play has an intriguing plot, since the start, we see a worrying telephone call which makes us keep attentive in the play all the time.
The strain that call provokes, will make Harry feel nervous, because I think he always wants to protect Bill, and the call is looking for Bill.
When we know why this call was made, the stressful situations will continue with the arguments between James and Stella, the meets between James and Bill, and the tense final is so uncertain; when the play ends you can think Bill had sex with Stella, or they only had a drink, we can think what we want, but they don’t confirm anything, and that makes James feeling angry and keeping the audience interested in the resolution of the play.
This is play that could be considered like a thriller, like the plot of a film, because of its stressful situations, the strain it causes, it could be a film and also it was first presented on Television by the Associated Rediffusion Television on 1961.
PARTY TIME
Party Time was first performed on 31 October 1991 at the Almeida Theatre, London by the Almeida Theatre Company.
The cast is formed by:
Terry: A 40 years old man.
Gavin: A man in his fifties
Dusty: A woman in her twenties.
Melissa: A seventy years old woman
Liz: A woman in her thirties.
Charlotte: A woman in her thirties.
Fred: A man in his forties.
Douglas: A man of fifty.
Jim: A young man.
As in other Pinter’s plays, we don’t know nor the time neither the space; on the stage we see the Gavin’s flat, but we don’t know in what city or town is it. The situation in the time also is unknown, it could be anytime.
On the stage there is a large room, with sofas, armchairs…., it’s a common sitting-room.
There are people sitting and standing, talking, there is a waiter serving drinks.
We are watching a party.
During the whole play, this people is talking, discussing about normal topics, related with rich people, they talk about a beautiful tennis club, with swimming-pool, exclusive to high-class people.
There is nothing strange on it. They discuss about this and that, and only Dusty, the youngest woman is worried about his brother, she asks for Jimmy sometimes; nobody gives her a good answer.
The party ends, and light goes down, then a focus lights on, focusing on a young man, he is Jimmy, he says:
-“Sometimes I hear things. Then it’s quiet. I had a name. It was Jimmy. People called me Jimmy. That was my name. Sometimes I hear things. Then everything is quiet. When everything is quiet I hear my heart”.
I think in this play Pinter is talking about the society, the world we live, because we see a high-class party, where they are so happy and unconcerned about the world which arounds them. In the party, they also talk about the war, the soldiers, the military controls, but they are happy, they don’t look worried.
Maybe, Jimmy represents the outside world, people who has a poor, sad life, people with problems, real problems which are forgotten by the rich people.
It can be a reference to the real important topics of the life; the real feelings( “I hear my heart”).
The life is superficial, people are superficial and Jimmy and the silence may represent the lost feelings.