One of his most recognized and acclaimed plays, Harold Pinter’s “The Dumb Waiter” is a humorous and provocative story of two hit men as they wait in a basement for their next assignment. Told through Pinter’s unmistakable wit and poignant pauses, “The Dumb Waiter” is recognized for its exceptional writing and subtle character development.
Based on the play by Harold Pinter, THE DUMB WAITER is set in the basement kitchen of a deserted rooming house, where eccentric hit men Gus (Kristopher Lee Bicknell) and Ben (Jordan Randall) wait impatiently for instructions on their next job. But their predicament takes a bizarre turn when unsettling messages are sent down from the presumably abandoned house via a dumb waiter mounted in the wall. Increasingly complex orders leave Gus and Ben scrambling to comply, all the while never questioning the authority of the invisible entity upstairs. Who is toying with them, and what nefarious end are the seemingly random notes building toward?
“The Dumb Waiter” is brought to you by Vespertine Productions, the creators behind the acclaimed original play “The History of the World (All of It)”, the original television series “Crombie’s Zombies”, and the feature film “Hello, My Name is Charlie”. In more than 5 years of crafting both written and original material, Vespertine is proud to claim this production as some of their best work to date. The set design of Matthew G. Hill (designer of Georgij Paro’s production of “Hamlet” and “The Marriage of Bette and Boo” at the National Theatre of Croatia) creates a unique and intimate setting perfectly suited to subtle writing of “The Dumb Waiter”, and the award-winning direction of Landon Johnson (“Lights and Darks”, “Kaleidoscope”, “Hello, My Name is Charlie”, “Crombie’s Zombies”) demonstrates how blind acceptance of faulty or immoral authority is a hazard common to all walks of life, and a key element of humanity’s depraved condition.
Actor Kristopher Lee Bicknell stars in the role of Gus, fresh from his work on “Hyperbole: Origins” and “Gogol Project” by the Rogue Artists Ensemble and “The Kharmful Charms of Daniel Kharms” by ARTEL. Jordan Randall takes up the role of Ben, having recently finished with a production of “The Sport of My Mad Mother”, directed by LA Drama Critics Award-winner Steve Kent, as well as Jean Genet’s masterwork “The Screens”.
