HAROLD PINTER’S THE DUMB WAITER
In my heart of theater nerd hearts, I love Harold Pinter. His dialogue is quick and full of subtext, and he has a knack for tapping into our innermost fears and desires and exploiting them, in the best possible sense, to make amazing theater. The Dumb Waiter is no exception — this is a tight, clean script which just fits into the Fringe’s time limit.
Overall this was a good production. Having “Gus” be played by a woman tweaked the dynamic between the characters just slightly (in a good way!), and the relationship still retains its integrity. The energy between Erik Hoover and Ariel Pinkerton was just the right combination of camaraderie, peevishness, and standoffishness. It was a pleasure to watch them deal with the mysterious and slightly ominous dumbwaiter.
On the crap side, the accents felt forced and fake, and the pacing felt off. There is a lot of space in between lines in this play, and those spaces were sometimes filled too quickly. There is also a lot of weight, even in the smallest most throw-away phrases, and I felt that was lost sometimes as well. Maybe that’s related to the accents, I don’t know.
4 stars for having the balls to do Pinter in the Fringe Festival.
SWF
