Pinter 7.
Harold Pinter Theatre. February 13, 2019
Or the one with Danny Dyer and Martin Freeman. Let’s start with these two in The Dumb Waiter. Two hitmen waiting in the basement of a disused restaurant. Two people waiting, ignorant for what will happen to them and what they will be asked to do. And an actual dumb waiter that springs to life delivering them bizarre notes and requests leaving them increasingly jittery.
Freeman and Dyer are an excellent partnership and inspired casting. Freeman as the junior partner; skittish and wanting to make tea and Dyer as the senior partner trying to assert his authority over a situation over which he has no control.
It’s the hum-drum of life transposed to an unusual situation and the excellent word play that create a sense of the absurd. It’s Pinter’s version of Waiting for Godot. It’s bloody funny and excellently performed.
And before that we had A Slight Ache with the superb Gemma Whelan and John Heffernan. Originally a play for radio, Jamie Lloyd has staged this as such using the On Air sign, the sound effects station, the microphones… very clever as that allows the focus to be on the two protagonists in incredibly simple staging and pushing the audience to use their imaginations (and prejudices). Brilliant.
The clipped British accents are those of BBC RP that only existed in the 50s. They hint at the repression of a couple who appear perfectly happy in their perfect English village yet are terribly sad. She longs for love and he gets nasty as he fears his future.
I read somewhere that this is the most Tales of the Unexpected style one act that Pinter did and its clever, dark, and quite brilliant. But it will be overshadowed by The Dumb Waiter and thats a bit of a shame.
5/5 Pinter at its finest.
(Dyer was signing autographs at the stage door and I was told by one of the staff that every night he takes the time to speak to everyone who waits for him. Very nice chap.)
