Alec Newman

The Dumb Waiter is a quintessential early Pinter play from 1960, one that feels almost Beckettian if not absurdist. It is set in a room, a situation with bags of sinister mystery with just two players. I always think of what the French writer Jean Anouilh said about Waiting for Godot on seeing Beckett's play for the first time in Paris in 1953. "Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes. It's awful."