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The Dumb Waiter is a very funny play, and Director Robert Chapman has chosen to emphasize its comic aspects--at the expense of just about everything else. Gus, played by K. Lype O'Dell, is a perfect buffoon throughout the play. Ben(David Meneghel) is more the prototype of the cool, calm professional killer, but he eventually is caught up in volatile arguments with Gus about absolutely trivial subjects. If The Dumb Waiter were only a funny play, if Pinter were capable of nothing more than writing funny dialogue, one could scarcely have found fault with O'dell's or Meneghel's performances, or with Chapman's direction. Unfortunately, the Loeb production conveys little sense of an integral relationship between the wild arguments over the semantics of the phrase "to light a kettle" or a disputed penalty at a soccer game, and the actual dramatic situation of the play. These outbursts are the logical result of the tension which arises from the interminable wait for the victim's arrival. But the Loeb production does not make the audience conscious of a mounting tension. In fact, the comic dialogues are so overplayed that one can almost forget that these two men are professional killers. Ben's and Gus's response to the messages from the dumb waiter is so funny that one forgets that these strange messages are baffling and terrifying. And without this sense of terror, Pinter loses much of his uniqueness among modern dramatists.
The Dumb Waiter is a very funny play, and Director Robert Chapman has chosen to emphasize its comic aspects--at the expense of just about everything else. Gus, played by K. Lype O'Dell, is a perfect buffoon throughout the play. Ben(David Meneghel) is more the prototype of the cool, calm professional killer, but he eventually is caught up in volatile arguments with Gus about absolutely trivial subjects. If The Dumb Waiter were only a funny play, if Pinter were capable of nothing more than writing funny dialogue, one could scarcely have found fault with O'dell's or Meneghel's performances, or with Chapman's direction. Unfortunately, the Loeb production conveys little sense of an integral relationship between the wild arguments over the semantics of the phrase "to light a kettle" or a disputed penalty at a soccer game, and the actual dramatic situation of the play. These outbursts are the logical result of the tension which arises from the interminable wait for the victim's arrival. But the Loeb production does not make the audience conscious of a mounting tension. In fact, the comic dialogues are so overplayed that one can almost forget that these two men are professional killers. Ben's and Gus's response to the messages from the dumb waiter is so funny that one forgets that these strange messages are baffling and terrifying. And without this sense of terror, Pinter loses much of his uniqueness among modern dramatists.
The Dumb Waiter is a very funny play, and Director Robert Chapman has chosen to emphasize its comic aspects--at the expense of just about everything else. Gus, played by K. Lype O'Dell, is a perfect buffoon throughout the play. Ben(David Meneghel) is more the prototype of the cool, calm professional killer, but he eventually is caught up in volatile arguments with Gus about absolutely trivial subjects. If The Dumb Waiter were only a funny play, if Pinter were capable of nothing more than writing funny dialogue, one could scarcely have found fault with O'dell's or Meneghel's performances, or with Chapman's direction. Unfortunately, the Loeb production conveys little sense of an integral relationship between the wild arguments over the semantics of the phrase "to light a kettle" or a disputed penalty at a soccer game, and the actual dramatic situation of the play. These outbursts are the logical result of the tension which arises from the interminable wait for the victim's arrival. But the Loeb production does not make the audience conscious of a mounting tension. In fact, the comic dialogues are so overplayed that one can almost forget that these two men are professional killers. Ben's and Gus's response to the messages from the dumb waiter is so funny that one forgets that these strange messages are baffling and terrifying. And without this sense of terror, Pinter loses much of his uniqueness among modern dramatists.
The Dumb Waiter is a very funny play, and Director Robert Chapman has chosen to emphasize its comic aspects--at the expense of just about everything else. Gus, played by K. Lype O'Dell, is a perfect buffoon throughout the play. Ben(David Meneghel) is more the prototype of the cool, calm professional killer, but he eventually is caught up in volatile arguments with Gus about absolutely trivial subjects. If The Dumb Waiter were only a funny play, if Pinter were capable of nothing more than writing funny dialogue, one could scarcely have found fault with O'dell's or Meneghel's performances, or with Chapman's direction. Unfortunately, the Loeb production conveys little sense of an integral relationship between the wild arguments over the semantics of the phrase "to light a kettle" or a disputed penalty at a soccer game, and the actual dramatic situation of the play. These outbursts are the logical result of the tension which arises from the interminable wait for the victim's arrival. But the Loeb production does not make the audience conscious of a mounting tension. In fact, the comic dialogues are so overplayed that one can almost forget that these two men are professional killers. Ben's and Gus's response to the messages from the dumb waiter is so funny that one forgets that these strange messages are baffling and terrifying. And without this sense of terror, Pinter loses much of his uniqueness among modern dramatists.
The Dumb Waiter is a very funny play, and Director Robert Chapman has chosen to emphasize its comic aspects--at the expense of just about everything else. Gus, played by K. Lype O'Dell, is a perfect buffoon throughout the play. Ben(David Meneghel) is more the prototype of the cool, calm professional killer, but he eventually is caught up in volatile arguments with Gus about absolutely trivial subjects. If The Dumb Waiter were only a funny play, if Pinter were capable of nothing more than writing funny dialogue, one could scarcely have found fault with O'dell's or Meneghel's performances, or with Chapman's direction. Unfortunately, the Loeb production conveys little sense of an integral relationship between the wild arguments over the semantics of the phrase "to light a kettle" or a disputed penalty at a soccer game, and the actual dramatic situation of the play. These outbursts are the logical result of the tension which arises from the interminable wait for the victim's arrival. But the Loeb production does not make the audience conscious of a mounting tension. In fact, the comic dialogues are so overplayed that one can almost forget that these two men are professional killers. Ben's and Gus's response to the messages from the dumb waiter is so funny that one forgets that these strange messages are baffling and terrifying. And without this sense of terror, Pinter loses much of his uniqueness among modern dramatists.
The Dumb Waiter is a very funny play, and Director Robert Chapman has chosen to emphasize its comic aspects--at the expense of just about everything else. Gus, played by K. Lype O'Dell, is a perfect buffoon throughout the play. Ben(David Meneghel) is more the prototype of the cool, calm professional killer, but he eventually is caught up in volatile arguments with Gus about absolutely trivial subjects. If The Dumb Waiter were only a funny play, if Pinter were capable of nothing more than writing funny dialogue, one could scarcely have found fault with O'dell's or Meneghel's performances, or with Chapman's direction.
Unfortunately, the Loeb production conveys little sense of an integral relationship between the wild arguments over the semantics of the phrase "to light a kettle" or a disputed penalty at a soccer game, and the actual dramatic situation of the play. These outbursts are the logical result of the tension which arises from the interminable wait for the victim's arrival. But the Loeb production does not make the audience conscious of a mounting tension.
In fact, the comic dialogues are so overplayed that one can almost forget that these two men are professional killers. Ben's and Gus's response to the messages from the dumb waiter is so funny that one forgets that these strange messages are baffling and terrifying. And without this sense of terror, Pinter loses much of his uniqueness among modern dramatists.
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