The Lover, The Dumb Waiter

Harold Pinter was one of the most influential British dramatists of the past 70 years. The creator of ‘Pinteresque’ comedy of menace, he led the way from small one-act theatre works to writing major films like The Servant and The French Lieutenant’s Woman. It seemed that nothing was beyond Pinter’s capabilities, so the Ensemble’s revival of these two early works – one is from 1957 – reveals indications of the greatness to come. Look out for strange meanings, long pauses and plenty of subtexts.

The Lover, first produced in 1962, features an affluent British married couple, Richard and Sarah, who appear to be in some form of open relationship. Or are they? 

Dressed for a day at the office, Gareth Davies asks the play's first blunt question: 'Is your lover coming today?' Nicole Da Silva replies that he's due 'At three'. They kiss goodbye and he's gone.

There follows a long day of costume changes and pretence, of bongo drumming and charges of ‘you’re just a bloody woman’ and ‘a common or garden slut’. Da Silva withstands the force of Davies’ tirade, and the couple eventually withdraw to out-of-sight, under-the-table business.

Da Silva leads this kaleidoscope of emotions into dark, comic and somewhat tragic ends. Only her husband’s bongo drumming now seems unlikely.

For the second play, a complete change is accomplished in the interval: an entire outer-London world is replaced by a dingey, windowless Birmingham cellar with two narrow beds and, in the centre, a closed serving-hatch.

Here are Ben (Gareth Davies again) and Gus (Anthony Taufa, who had a slight, blink-and-you’ll-miss-him part in the first play), two gangsters awaiting instructions for their next move. With nothing else to do, they chat and live their bleak lives.

Suddenly, with many a lurching noise, behind the serving-hatch is revealed a dumb waiter mechanism which, by way of written orders, requests increasingly outlandish dishes from the café upstairs. The two men decide to obey the calls, no matter how impossible they become.

The tension between the two actors rises, with Anthony Taufa reaching heights of baffled misunderstanding. At the end guns are drawn, lives are at stake, the audience is baffled. Pinter strikes.

With assured direction by Mark Kilmurry, and design by Simone Romaniuk (especially for Play Two), this is a fine introduction to Pinter’s unique world. 

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Prudence Upton