The Dumb Waiter

Summary

BBC production of The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter, presented in the same week as Pinter’s One for the Road in the Summer Season strand.

Theatre play

The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter [more information]

Play synopsis

'Two hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment. As the play begins, Ben, the senior member of the team, is reading a newspaper, and Gus, the junior member, is tying his shoes. Gus asks Ben many questions as he gets ready for their job and tries to make tea. They argue over the semantics of "light the kettle" and "put on the kettle". Ben continues reading his paper for most of the time, occasionally reading excerpts of it to Gus. Ben gets increasingly animated, and Gus’s questions become more pointed, at times nearly nonsensical. In the back of the room is a dumbwaiter, which delivers occasional food orders. This is mysterious and both characters seem to be puzzled why these orders keep coming. At one point they send up some snack food that Gus had brought along. Ben has to explain to the people above via the dumbwaiter’s "speaking tube" that there is no food. This whole sequence is rather odd because the basement is clearly not outfitted for fulfilment of the orders. Gus leaves the room to get a drink of water in the bathroom, and the dumbwaiter’s speaking tube whistles (a sign that there is a person on the other end who wishes to communicate). Ben listens carefully—we gather from his replies that their victim has arrived and is on his way to the room. Ben shouts for Gus, who is still out of the room. The door that the target is supposed to enter from flies open, Ben rounds on it with his gun, and Gus enters, stripped of his jacket, waistcoat, tie and gun. There is a long silence as the two stare at each other before the curtain comes down (the implication is that Gus is the person that Ben has been employed to kill).' Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dumb_Waiter.

Production history

The world première was in the Kleines Haus in Frankfurt (performed under the title Der Stumme Diener) in February 1959. First performed in London in January 1960, as part of a double bill with Pinter’s first play The Room, at the Hampstead Theatre Club, directed by James Roose-Evans, with Nicholas Selby as Ben and George Tovey as Gus. The production transferred to the Royal Court in March 1960.

Date of transmission

Tuesday 23 July 1985

Time

9.35-10.30pm

Series

Summer Season

Channel

BBC2

Production company

BBC

Credits

Director

Kenneth Ives

Producer

Rosemary Hill

Playwright

Harold Pinter

Designer

Bruce Macadie

Make-up Designer

Eileen Mair

Sound Supervisor

Ray Angel

Cast

Colin Blakely	Ben
Kenneth Cranham	Gus

Audiovisual sources

Title

The Dumb Waiter (BBC, 1985)

Archive

BBC Information and Archives [more information]

Address

White City
London
UK

Telephone

+44 (0)20 8008 2288

Website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/informationandarchives/

Access

BBC Information and Archives is not open to the public.

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 18 July 1985 (Magazine)

Linking notes

article by Michael Billington, p. 9; listing with image, p. 49

Associated programmes

One for the Road (BBC, 1985)
One for the Road by Harold Pinter
BBC2 (Summer Season)