The Dumb Waiter - by Harold Pinter

I assume The Dumb Waiter is classified as a comedy, being on at the Comedy Festival, but there are no real laugh-out-loud bits - its black humour is taken from the situation it portrays.


Two hitmen are in a stark basement room waiting for notice about their next job. Not much happens - they make cups of tea, read the newspaper, chit chat on ordinary topics. When a message appears in the "dumb waiter" - presumably a relic from a previous time - they take it in their stride. But there is always an undercurrent of tension, about their work, and who the victim will be.

I enjoyed the production at the Festival - it was staged in a very small room in the Town Hall (could have been a cloak room:-) seated about 80 but very squishy as it was full the night I went. The set comprised a few boxes and a few bits hanging up at the back to be the dumb waiter, and a bunch of sound effects. It worked well.