The Dumb Waiter is a one-act play by British playwright Harold Pinter. A modernist tragicomedy, it tells the story of two assassins while they wait in a basement room for their target to appear. In their apathy, they quarrel about trivial issues and question the hit. Soon their sense of reality begins to falter, and strange events unfold inside the basement. The play’s absurd series of events is characteristic of Pinter’s work, which exposed the irrational features and backward logic of modern stories and dilemmas.
Cast:
Stephen Papps – (Gus) TV & Film includes: Russian Snark (Misha), Emperor (Higgins), Head High (Landlord), Fresh Eggs (Chalky), Hillary (Bowden), Eruption (Rory), Spartacus (Ovius), Park (Keith Park), Life’s a Riot (Rod Rowlands), The Brokenwood Mysteries (Noel), End of the Golden Weather (Firpo) Best Actor NZ Film Awards.
Theatre Includes: Social Animal (All), Mike and Virginia (Harry), Heroes (Phillipe), Henry V / As You Like it, Pop up Globe, (York/Nym/Jacques), King Lear (Kent), The Hothouse (Lobb), Stage Kiss (Harrison), The Pitmen Painters (Harry), Midnight in Moscow (Boris), Hound of the Baskervilles (Dr Watson), The Thirty nine Steps (Various), The Homecoming (Teddy, Auckland Arts Festival), Success (Jules Donovan), Blowing it (All), The Birthday Party (Goldberg).
Michael Lawrence – (Ben) TV & Film includes: Rude Awakenings, Closer (SF), The Bach, Toy Love, Feathers of Peace, Tohunga, Price of Milk, Duggan, Xena, High Tide.
Theatre includes: Snowflake (Andy), Plumb Theatre, Simpatico (Carter), London, UK – Off West End Best Actor nomination, The Public Eye (Charles Sidley) London, UK, Creditors (Gustav), The Chairs/ Les Chaises (Old man) Auckland Arts festival, performed in English & French, True West (Lee), Decadence (Steve/Les), The Homecoming (Lenny), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Bernie) London, UK, Miss Julie (Jean), Old Times (Deeley), A Streetcar Named Desire (Mitch), The Beauty Queen of Lenaane (Pato), Julius Caesar (Mettalus), Death of a Salesman (Biff), Burn This (Pale), East (Mike), Twelfth Night (Antonio).
Directed: The Homecoming (AOF), Oleanna (Maidment Studio), The Hothouse (Maidment Studio), Strange Children (Herald Theatre), Blasted (Silo theatre), The New Man (Silo theatre).
Director – Edward Peni is a Tamaki Makaurau based Theatre practitioner and Pinter enthusiast, who has worked across the creative field as an actor, stage manager, director and producer. He has worked with all the major theatre companies within Auckland including Silo Theatre, Auckland Theatre Company, NZ Opera, Auckland Arts Festival, Potent Pause productions and Te Pou Theatre.
Recent producer credits include ‘O Nofoa’ with Te Pou Theatre (2017) as well two successful seasons of ‘Skin Hunger’ as part of the Auckland Fringe Festival 2022 and Summer at Q 2023. Edward has worked with Michael Lawrence as actor in Harold Pinter’s The Hothouse (2008 & 2018) as Lush, as well as co-directing Potent Pause’s successful production of Pinter’s seminal work, The Homecoming which was presented at the Auckland Old Folks Association in 2022.
Past (potent pause) PRODUCTIONS, kPinter productions include: The Homecoming, Old Times, The Hothouse, The Birthday Party and The Caretaker.