David Halliwell’s Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchsand the first scene from Harold Pinter’s The dumb waiter.

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Michelle Cheung 15th November 2001

The Jewel Robbery

I was given two pieces of text. One of which was from David Halliwell's Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs. The other was from the first scene from Harold Pinter's The dumb waiter.

I felt that both extracts were quite entertaining. I preferred The Dumb Waiter as it was slightly more amusing than the other extract. They were both comical in the sense that all characters from both plays were very unintelligent despite their plans and the things they were going to do. For example, Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs. The four students decided to act out their robbery in order to plan it better, though this seemed to be a good idea at the time, at the end of it they had achieved absolutely nothing. They had just argued over irrelevant things such as where the buttons were in the elevator.

Wick: Aye. We get in the lift. (They squeeze together in a tight square.)
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Scrawdyke: Come on. Now I'm nearest to the button.

Nipple: No Ai'm nearest the button.

Scrawdyke: Which side is it?

This, I can imagine would be quite amusing for the audience. In this scene, David Halliwell creates dramatic irony. The audience know that the robbery will never go as smoothly as the students had planned out and this helps the atmosphere become more comical.

I think in this scene, the four students would be wearing something casual. Such as jeans, a dark shirt and trainers.

For this scene, ...

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