DC Theater Arts: Watching Theatre Du Jour’s production of The Dumb Waiter is like sitting back and enjoying Harold Pinter 101. This acclaimed early work of Pinter’s has all the markings of his eclectic pacing and style laced with bits of absurdism. In the hands of the seasoned Theatre Du Jour company led by B. Stanley as performer and director, the piece zings.
3 comments:
I decided to read this article knowing that we will be putting on a production of The Dumb Waiter soon, and having no clue what the show is about. I still don’t really understand what the show will be about, but this article did make me more interested in attending the show at CMU. I am also very interested in this idea of experimental theater. As a theater student, part of the reason I was so interested in the profession is how everything changes each time a performance occurs. You will never be doing the exact same show twice. So experimental theater, which purposefully maintains the sense of change and constant growth the entire run of the show, is a very intriguing concept to me. I cannot wait for our performance of this show, and hope to read more pieces in the experimental theater category or by this playwright in the future.
I am so excited for Dumb Waiter! As a lover of absurdist theater, I’m so excited to see how this show unfolds and so happy the article did not have any spoilers! Being that the “dumb waiter” is such an integral part of the show I’m excited to see what our sound, light, and media teams have in store for us! Side note: Aside from the physical “dumb waiter” are the men not also “dumb waiters”? Because they are waiting dumbly for orders from the dumb waiter. I’m also very excited about this Theater Du Jour Company! The DC-based company fosters experimentation within theater, something I’m personally fond of. I’ll have to add it to my list of dream companies. I’m also curious to see Alon’s blocking.Creating tension in a space using only two actors is certainly a balancing act and I’m excited to see how he does it!
No pictures of the set! That's disappointing. I was hoping to see it but hopefully they'll release it after the show closes. The dumb waiter is a short production at only fifty minutes and with only two actors they can explore a lot and develop the story in a meaningful way without needing to continually setup new characters and their relationships with other characters. I will say our actors look a bit different than theirs but I wonder how our production will be similar and how it will be different compared to their production. They also do not mention any scenery designers or technicians so that makes me wonder on how the dumb waiter is dropping the notes down. Maybe their production is a stretch of reality as notes fly in and out under special effects from sound and lighting, maybe even projection. It would be fascinating to see how they decided to produce it.
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