Verdict: Funny – but perhaps for the wrong reasons
Despite the hotch-potch settings of the preview of The Dumb Waiter, and the notable absence of its eponymous prop, this performance will thrive given the right setting – which I am sure the dark chambers of the Burton Taylor will provide. Forming part of what seems to be a renaissance in the staging of Pinter’s plays (with this particular play having been revived at both the Oxford Playhouse and Trafalgar studios in London in 2004 and 2007 respectively), Wiretap’s production brings about all the delicious fourth-wall dissolution discomfort reminiscent of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
Interestingly, though perhaps not purposefully, it also seems to include some slapstick elements, embodied in Gus’s character, played by Tim Coleman. Given that Pinter’s plays are generally associated with a kind of black humour – the kind that arises out of fear or misfortune – it is unfortunate that most of the laughs that I gleaned from the play were derived from nigh-on clowning behaviour. Gus’s repeated sniffing of cushions and conjuring of cigarette packets from his shoes, rather than invoking the ‘subtleties of the comedy’ between the characters, did quite the opposite. After bringing attention to the toilet’s non-functioning ‘ball-cock’ and various bodily odours, the comic side of the play started to verge on becoming scatological.
Whatever the misgivings with regard to the comedy however, the company give an accomplished portrayal of the dread and confusion that Pinter’s script demands. Drawing upon notions of interminable time and restricted space, which, emphasized by Ben’s silences, are wonderfully executed by Vyvyan Almond. Volatile tensions are built up, leaving you aching for resolution in this eclipsed microcosm, in which only tabloid news of human tragedy and football fixtures serve as references to the outside world.
Although the play got off to a slow start, and the comedy was somewhat different to what I was anticipating (though perhaps this would make for a provocative adaptation), with over a week to go until the premier, there is ample time for Wiretap to deal with these minor issues. Given the sun-soaked, antithetical settings in which the preview was performed, the cast and crew dealt with these issues well, performing with characteristic bleak Pinter style. I look forward to seeing the final production at the Burton Taylor.
