Stephanie Gamarra January 3, 2006

Group: A

The Play

“The Dumb Waiter”

“The Dumb Waiter” is play written by the famous playwright, Harold Pinter.

This play was first presented at the Hampstead Theatre Club on the 21st of January in 1960.

In this play, the two main characters are Ben and Gus who are both killers. Ben seems to be the leader out of the two. Ben spends most of his time reading newspapers throughout the play. He seems to a very calm and really patient person. Gus, in the other hand is a nervous person but at the same time, sensitive. During the play, Gus questions a lot the work he has to do although he just does it, like an obedient servant. The other character mentioned in the play is Wilson, although he doesn’t appear in the play. Wilson gives the information to the ‘dumb waiter’ who then communicates it with Gus and Ben. Wilson is the leader of the three and who calls who they have to kill. Unlike Gus, Ben does his job without asking anything.

This play is about two men who work for someone who they have never met. They wait in a basement of a hotel waiting for their boss to tell them what to do. During the play Ben does nothing more than to read his newspaper. While they wait the ‘dumb waiter’ sent a food order which they had to send, but later they run out of food, so they decide to write a note. Before they do so, they find a speaking tube, which is connected with the upstairs. Ben talks into the tube with somebody or pretends. He instructs Gus to put the kettle because the upstairs want tea. In the meantime a whistle is heard through the speaking tube which meant that the upstairs wanted to speak. Ben picks it up and then calls Gus. Ben raises his gun and there is a long silence where both Ben and Gus stare at each other.

The play takes place in a simple and closed space: a room, a basement of a hotel to be more specific, without a window and a door that separates the room with the ‘unknown’.

The events of this play take place in the present, in a chronological order. We can get the idea that time goes by slowly because the characters are bored and don’t have anything else to do. There is no time ellipsis.

This play is written in verse and the language is very simple and rather colloquial. In the conversations that Gus has with Ben we can see that they both have problems in speaking that are rather common to the low-middle class.

In my opinion this play is quite intriguing and interesting because there’re a lot of subjects that reflect the reality of things. Also, I want to add to this is that Pinter does a good job in expressing the real feelings about both Gus and Ben, which makes us feel sorry for them and the circumstances that they are found in.