Smart take on The Dumb Waiter

The Dumb Waiter Bad Company Theatre Royal Backspace October 11-14

IN a grim basement, two hitmen kill time. Gus is nervous, persistently questioning. Ben coolly reads the paper between startling violent outbursts. The outside world intrudes — an envelope slides under the door, orders are issued from the former cafe above.

There’s no Pinteresque cloudy ambiguity. We’re told with gleaming clarity what’s happening, but not why.

Possible “whys”. In this very early Harold Pinter play, the politics are not so explicit as in later works, but they’re there. We don’t own our lives. Unseen, unaccountable authorities are in control. Or is this a vision of a Beckettian Cosmic Void? A study in “the banality of evil”? Or — a classic Pinter theme — is it about men? Violent, uncomprehending, sentimental. (Women are absent and a cause for fear and regret.) Whatever the case, this production brims with tension, and is very funny. Tai Gardner as the ferrety Gus is charmingly gormless, and gives the most understated performance I’ve seen from him. James Casey is a perfect Ben: surly, dangerous, ordinary.

The direction is sympathetic, muted and precise, though takes a misstep in inexplicably ignoring Pinter’s specific stage directions for the final moments. The changed ending gives the same bald information, but lacks the carefully designed indifference of the original.

Nevertheless, this is a highly creditable directorial debut by Chris Bowers.

Tai Gardner and James Casey