‘The Dumb Waiter’ is about two hired killers who stalk their prey, to the point of hysteria. It is set in one room, with the fourth wall removed. Which is similar to what we are considering to do, either that or split staging. The two characters are Ben and Gus. With in the play, Ben is the dominant character; he reigns over Gus in status. Gus is stripped of everything that gives him any value. The two, especially Ben, are normally very relaxed about their job, but near the of the play Ben finds himself in a scene where he is forced to think what he is going to do. It is something that is foreign to him, but he knows he must overcome it and he does. Otherwise, he would have shown no hesitation in killing Gus.
It relates to our stimulus as there are two forms of gang warfare within the play, the first being Ben and Gus against every gang or group they have every killed. There is also this warfare when Ben turns against Gus and kills him. Even thought they are his orders it finds it a hard concept. There are many other aspects of the play that are similar to our work. Harold Pinter is famously known for the ‘Pinter pause’ a strong pause between the characters that displays tension, and often characters feelings. Within the first scene of our devised piece there is a long pause, in which the leader of the group is displaying angry towards another. The atmosphere in this scene is back up with the other characters reaction on stage. It really shows the atmosphere of terror and fear with little words and no shouting. Within each piece there are a lot of similarities between them, both have a ‘Pinter pause’ both having warfare within and out of the group, both have a similar style.
In my group piece we are a gang, which rival with other gangs, but there is also a lot of tension and argument within the group. Both plays have a naturalistic style, yet each character is so strong that it stands out and the aspects of each person are empathised. In our piece we felt that the naturalistic style of the piece was stopping some of the creativity, so that’s the main reason with tried to empathize it more and bring it away slightly from that style. I believe a similar thing has been done with The Dumb Waiter; a slightly unrealistic side to the story lets the audience take it in more.
Neither of the pieces have any set date, or period. Obviously they have been set near to the end of the 20th century, my group piece most likely being set today. Yet in my group we don’t have a set date, as we haven’t really included any major influences or happenings from any time. This is similar to The Dumb Waiter. Ben and Gus simply refer to a newspaper, and the football games that are happening near them. They also talk about going to see a certain football match by The Aston Villa’s, so this tells us where they are at this particular time, but they do also talk about doing jobs all over the country, so it wouldn’t make any difference if the play were set in a different region. The story line and morals are relevant where ever it is set. Again this is similar to my group piece. It is a story about a girl gang and how they react and interact together, it doesn’t matter where the story is set, the synopsis would still be the same.
On a whole these two pieces are very similar, in the structure and basis of each play. Neither of them have been strongly influenced by any thing in society, for example how in The Caucasian Chalk Circle there was a war on when it was wrote, and this was reflected in the play. Although Harold Pinter never commented on his plays and so it is for us to decide if anything really influenced him. The only points that influenced us in our script work were youngsters and drugs. The increasing number of young people taking drugs and becoming criminals, but this tied in with our theme of Gang Warfare. I presume Harold Pinter was influenced by crime, and murders.
