The Dumb Waiter

play

 

THE DUMB WAITER

by Harold Pinter

A play in one act

Opened at the Maria Mezei Theatre, Budapest on 12 February 1999.

Two unimportant gangsters are heading to Birmingham. Their employer, Wilson, sent them into the basement of an unused, dirty hotel. They have to wait there for an order. Time seems to stop and the two become irritated of each other more and more. The conversation turns to the old, forgotten dirty jobs, and to never-discussed grievances.

It becomes more obvious that one of them knows more than the other. They start to wonder if they were sent there to kill each other. Do they know too much? Or just too little? Maybe they both can survive the night, or at least one of them.

And suddenly, in the empty hotel, the dumb-waiter starts, and terror strikes.