Subject: # 14227 Teatro Inglés Siglos XIX y XX Grupo A

Author: Harold Pinter

Play: The Dumb Waiter

Subtitle: N/A

Publisher: N/A

The first version was represented in 1960 at the Hampstead Theatre club.

Ben is the captain, the one who controls the situation, who says what must be done, who is said what to say and who selects which information should be shared and which not. On the other hand, Gus seems more stupid, not realising things, but only at the first glimpse, because then he starts making more intelligent questions after all the interrogatory. He is who realises that something is going on and that the company where they work might be hiding something from them. Besides, it seems that they have been working together for many years and that their relationships was better in the past than what is now. We can see this when Ben denies to have been watching a match with Gus and then he is able to comment the match:

“Gus: Yes, you were there. Don’t you remember that disputed penalty?

Ben: No.

Gus: He went down just inside the area. Then they said he was just acting. I didn’t think the other bloke touched him myself. But the referee had the ball on the spot.

Ben: Didn’t touch him! What are you talking about? He laid him out flat!”(137)

Regarding the plot, there are two hired assassins working, who are the main characters, they have to wait at the house of their victim for her or his return. During the wait, they have their own disputes and at the final part, before the victim arrives, a box comes down from the ceiling, from the upper floor. It seems that the place where they were waiting was a kitchen, or so they supposed, but then Ben discovers that the one who sends them the box actually is one of their company, because she or he gives them the notice that their victim was coming. We can notice this at the conversation Ben has through the speaking-tube, where they first talk about the food they have sent up and then about the crime they are about to commit:

“Ben: Yes.

To ear. He listens. To mouth.

Straight away. Right.

To ear. He listens. To mouth.

Sure we’re ready.

To ear. He listens. To mouth.

Understood. Repeat. He has arrived and will be coming in straight away. The normal method to be employed. Understood.”(164)

Finally, the place where the play is performed is a basement with no windows, with a toilet whose cistern doesn’t work properly, which will give Gus a theme of conversation. The way the place is set out will be important later in the play, due to the box coming from the upper floor from someone or people they cannot see and this makes them easy to manipulate.

Academic year 2005/2006
© a.r.e.a./Dr. Vicente Forés López
© Pablo Cristóbal Borillo
pacrisbo@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press