with echo but are nearer nakedness. One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.
The critic Lois Gordon has well said that 'one way of looking at Pinter's plays is to
say that they are dramatic stratagems that uncover nakedness.'
The Dumb Waiter
SCENE: A hasement room. Two beds, flat against the back wall. A serving hatch, closed, between the beds. A door to the kitchen and lavatory, left. A door to a passage, right.
BEN is lying on a bed, left, reading a paper, GUS is sitting on a bed, right, tying his shoelaces, with difficidty. Both are dressed in shirts, trousers and braces.
Silence.
GUS ties his laces, rises, yawns and begins to walk slowly to the door, left. He stops, looks down, and shakes his foot.
BEN lowers his paper and watches him. GUS kneels and unties his shoelace and slowly takes off the shoe. He looks inside it and brings out a flattened matchbox. He shakes it and examines it. Their eyes meet, BEN rattles his paper and reads. Gus puts the matchbox in his pocket and bends down to put on his shoe. He ties his lace, with difficulty, BEN lowers his paper and watches him. GUS walks to the door, left, stops, and shakes the other foot. He kneels, unties his shoelace, and slowly takes off the shoe. He looks inside it and brings out a flattened cigarette
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260 2 / HAROLD PINTER
packet. He shakes it and examines it. Their eyes meet. BEN rattles his paper and reads, GUS puts the packet in his pocket, bends down, puts on his shoe and ties the lace.
He wanders off , left. BEN slams the paper down on the bed and glares after him. He picks up the
paper and lies on his back, reading. Silence. A lavatory chain is pidled twice off left, hut the lavatory does not flush. Silence. GUS re-enters, left, and halts at the door, scratching his head. BEN slams down the paper.
BEN Kaw!
[He picks up the paper.]
Wha t about this? Listen to this!
[He refers to the paper.]
A ma n of eighty-seven wanted to cross the road. But there was a lot of traffic, see? He couldn't see how he was going to squeeze through. So he crawled under a lorry.1
GUS He what? BEN He crawled under a lorry. A stationary lorry. GUS No? BEN Th e lorry started and ran over him. GUS G o on! BEN That's what it says here. GUS Get away. BEN It's enough to make you want to puke, isn't it? GUS Wh o advised him to do a thing like that? BEN A ma n of eighty-seven crawling under a lorry! GUS It's unbelievable. BEN It's down here in black and white. GUS Incredible.
[Silence. GUS shakes his head and exits, BEN lies back and reads. The lavatory chain is pulled once off left, but the lavatory does not
flush. BEN whistles at an item in the paper. GUS re-enters.]
want to ask you something. BEN Wha t are you doing out there? GUS Well, I was just ? BEN Wha t about the tea? GUS I'm just going to make it. BEN Well, go on, make it. GUS Yes, I will. [He sits in a chair. Ruminatively.] He's laid on some very nice
crockery this time, I'll say that. It's sort of striped. There's a white stripe.
[BEN reads.]
It's very nice. I'll say that.
[BEN turns the page.]
1. Truck.
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THE DUMB WAITER / 2603
You know, sort of round the cup. Round the rim. All the rest of it's black, you see. The n the saucer's black, except for right in the middle, where the
cup goes, where it's white.
[BEN reads.] Then the plates are the same, you see. Only they've got a black stripe?the plates?right across the middle. Yes, I'm quite taken with the crockery.
BEN [Still reading.] Wha t do you want plates for? You're not going to eat. GUS I've brought a few biscuits. BEN Well, you'd better eat them quick. GUS I always bring a few biscuits. Or a pie. Yo u know I can't drink tea without
anything to eat. BEN Well, make the tea then, will you? Time's getting on.
[GUS brings out the flattened cigarette packet and examines it.]
GUS YOU got any cigarettes? I think I've run out.
[He throivs the packet high up and leans forward to catch it.]
I hope it won't be a long job, this one.
