Absurdist Theater Delivered by The Dumb Waiter

Oisín Moyne as Ben in The Dumb Waiter © Noordhaus Theater company

A silence fills the theater, punctuating the seemingly inane dialogue between two enigmatic characters. It is just long enough to unsettle the audience. Just short enough to keep them rapt. In the background the slow creak of a dumbwaiter fills the air, ready to deliver another mysterious message. 

Independent theater company, Noordhaus, opened their production of British playwright Harold Pinter’s play, The Dumb Waiter this week. After two successful shows in Groningen, the play moves south for a run of shows in Amsterdam and Den Haag. 

The Dumb Waiter, like much of Pinter’s work, combines dark comedy and absurdist dialogue. It tells the story of hitmen Ben and Gus. They wait impatiently for instructions to be delivered from an unseen authority via the medium of a dumbwaiter, from which the play gets its name. The work, a classic of the genre, touches on themes of the power exerted by institutions on individuals. “It is about this kind of institution-wise power structure,” says Oisín Moyne, who stars in the play “and how that ultimately will just result in some kind of conflict.” Audiences may be forgiven for thinking they had seen the story before. “The film, In Bruges, is directly inspired by this play,” says Moyne referring to the 2008 Oscar nominated movie, “it is almost one for one.” 

“The way we make memes is so weird and I can't help but see that reflected in 20th century absurdist theater.”

For Noordhaus, the terrain of the theater of the absurd is nothing new. The Groningen based company has previously put on works by other absurdist playwrights, such as Samuel Beckett. Absurdist theater sprung out of the ruins post Second World War Europe. “Everyone’s lives just turned upside down. And the plays of the time reflect that. They reject the need for a standard structure,” says Moyne. For him, there are key parallels between that society and today. “We are very much living in a similar time in many uncanny and uncomfortable ways,” says Moyne “I think the humour of Gen Z is very much associated with this lack of meaning. The way we make memes is so weird and I can't help but see that reflected in 20th century absurdist theater.”

It seems audiences too are responding to the strange rhythms of Pinter’s play. The two lone actors on stage carried dialogue full of Pinter’s signature mix of suspense and dark comedy.  “It was tense where it needed to be. It was funny where it needed to be,” said Alex Manktelow, who attended opening night in Groningen. This seemed to be a general feeling, as thunderous applause filled the theater at curtain call. 

Ruling over it all, actors and objects, is the mechanical dumbwaiter and its unseen, omnipotent operator.

 The sparse set also caught the eye. The action takes place in a single, windowless room. The props too are limited to everyday items. A newspaper, a box of matches, a cup of tea and a gun. Each full of symbolic meaning but never distracting from the intimacy of the actors’ performance. Ruling over it all, actors and objects, is the mechanical dumbwaiter and its unseen, omnipotent operator. 

Noordhaus are determined to bring plays like The Dumb Waiter to the Netherlands, where theater companies have generally preferred to perform self-written work. “International, especially English, theater was a space we didn’t really see being filled,” said Moyne. However, going against the grain is not without its risks. “There’s a saying where they call it ‘museum theater’. Performing plays as they were written,” says Moyne “but it’s my opinion that these playwrights were famous for a reason. There is a lot of value in these older projects.” 

Audiences in the Netherlands seem to be in agreement about the value of the show, with the next show at Mike’s Badhuistheater in Amsterdam already sold out. 

The Dumb Waiter will be at Mike’s Badhuistheater in Amsterdam on February 1, 2 & 16 and at Theater De Kunsthut in Den Haag on February 8.