Photo: Jesse Kramer
In 2005, when Harold Pinter (1930-2008) belatedly received the Nobel Prize for literature, his work was at the time embarrassingly absent from the London stage. Since the award, enthusiasm has renewed for his early plays in his hometown, where one has seen stunning revivals of The Birthday Party, The Hothouse and A Slight Ache among others.
Happily for Cape Town, The Mechanicals, “pioneering the resurrection of repertory theatre”, have followed suit. In their ‘British Lines’ season they had a crack at The Birthday Party, and seem to have nailed The Dumb Waiter (premiered 1960), Pinter’s absurd yet riveting black comedy about two working class hit men awaiting orders (those who have seen Martin McDonagh’s film In Bruges will experience some déjà vu).
The hired guns discover a dumb waiter in their room; trap-like, one expects it at any moment to guillotine off one of their hands. When a series of peculiar requests for food arrive via the small lift, the two paranoid men desperately try to make sense of their situation. It’s a study in being at the butt end of arbitrary instruction and malevolent power.
Directed by Luke Ellenbogen, Guy de Lancey’s taciturn Ben, for whom murder is all in a day’s work, is particularly well-observed. Nicholas Pauling is suitably cast as the nervous, restless, malcontent junior, Gus. On opening night the actors didn’t always trust the script as implicitly as they should, but overall we are most fortunate to have the opportunity to see Pinter’s extraordinary talent this well served.
