THE DUMB WAITER & OTHER PINTER PIECES. To 20 March.

Oxford/Guildford/Cambridge

THE DUMB WAITER & OTHER PIECES
by Harold Pinter

Oxford Playhouse Productions Oxford Playhouse to 28 February then tour to 20 March 2004
Mon-Thu; Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat Thu & Sat 2.30pm
Audio-described 28 February 2.30pm
Post-show talks 18, 24 February
Runs 1hr 55min One interval

TICKETS: 01865 305305
www.oxfordplayhouse.com (Oxford performances)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 February

A perfect first-half, and a decent second.Stanislavsky must be turning in his grave. If any playwright out-Chekhov's Chekhov for indirect dialogue and subtext it must be the East London master of menace. Yet far from the two busy actors here having time to prepare their new characters for the six short pieces in the first half of this programme, they've barely time to change costume and run between the compartments of Miriam Buether's two-storey set.

Grotesquely large for these pieces, the design has the advantage of filling the stage, its various compartments allowing small, varied spaces for each separate piece, better than pools of light with black curtain surround.

These sketches move about through Pinter's career, the second, Precisely a chill example of his openly political mode. On an ornate balcony two suave government types discuss the prospect of mass deaths, and how much public opinion will stand for. Complacently seeing themselves as decent moderates, their speech grimly mixes precision and deliberate ambiguity.

Others, including a revisionist Trouble in the Works observe the quirks of thought intriguing to see Jason Watkins move from voluble shop-steward to near catatonic night-time coffee-stall holder and the way emotion's damped down by being channelled through ordinary words. Or how nowhere-to-go-but-keep-talking chat leads to flat repetition.

These actors belong to different areas of performance. Watkins' work with Max Stafford-Clark brings script-based precision; Toby Jones, frequenter of physical theatre groups, is the more active in facial expression his manager in Trouble in the Works explodes in straight-backed disbelief at the workers' disenchantment with his industrial products.

In the longer Victoria Station Jones' controller makes the comic points in frustrated talk with his errant driver; Watkins more movingly suggesting the universe has gone awry.

For The Dumb Waiter Buether uses the full stage width to create a low-ceilinged dingy prison of a room. If the first part of Douglas Hodge's production is a luxury outing for the little pieces, the second half has high moments, but still needs to run-in more. It's a decent account but alternatively more jokey, or blatantly angst-ridden than cumulative in portraying humanity subordinated by fear and obedience.

Second/Roger/Mr Fibbs/Newspaper Seller/A/Controller/Gus: Toby Jones
First/Stephen/Mr Wills/Barman/B/Driver/Ben: Jason Watkins

Director: Douglas Hodge
Designer/Costume: Miriam Buether
Lighting: Johanna Town
Sound: John Leonard
Composer: Nick Bicat

2004-02-17 00:48:42