A Pinter Double Bill

by Harold Pinter

204th Production. Our 2026 spring production is a double bill of plays by Harold Pinter:

The Dumb Waiter

A classic 1957 Pinter often performed at festivals, The Dumb Waiter is one of his most accessible short plays – mysterious, fairly naturalistic, and hilarious. Two hitmen, 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. 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; the basement is clearly not outfitted as a restaurant kitchen. Without spoiling it here, the play has a memorable and reasonably straightforward ending.

Celebration

Pinter’s final play (2000) is a riot – a large cast in a single restaurant setting. It’s very funny, pretty rude, and reasonably naturalistic, though there is plenty of absurd dialogue and the usual Pinter non-sequiturs etc.

The plot revolves around three couples dining in the most expensive restaurant in town. At one table are sat two brothers, Lambert and Matt (probably London gangsters) and two sisters, Prue and Julie. Lambert and Julie are married, as are Matt and Prue. They are celebrating Lambert and Julie's wedding anniversary. All are hideously over the top and vacuous rich people. Seated at another table are Russell and Suki, who later join the other party of diners. He appears a dull banker and she has hidden depths and a past. The two tables eventually interact. The diners' conversations are interrupted by the existential ponderings of Richard the restauranteur, Sonia the maitresse d' and an unnamed Waiter (a ‘proper’ part with long speeches). The dialogue begins as an apparently ordinary celebratory meal for the diners, developing into a complex weaving of more sinister themes, including undercurrents of love/hate relationships and incest. The play ends with a mysterious (and incomplete) speech from the waiter, which hints at a possible way to escape the pain of everyday life.