James Perkins’ set has clean lines of whites, greys and beiges, with just two single beds on stage. This feels like a very appropriate play for our times: a short, sharp one-act drama with a minimal cast that is especially conductive to social distancing, and which raises questions around authority, power and unnamed oppression in our era of strongman politics. There is a vaudevillian edge to the men’s gangster-style shirts and braces, as well as the protracted silence of the opening scene when Ben (Alec Newman) lies on a bed reading the paper as Gus (Shane Zaza) fiddles with his shoelaces in a mime that just falls short of musical-hall skit. Under Alice Hamilton’s direction, it feels even more absurdist despite a social-realist veneer and thrillerish undertow. Beckett’s influence on Pinter is clear: the defining action in The Dumb Waiter is Ben and Gus’s waiting, like Vladimir and Estragon.
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