Presenting soon: The Dumb Waiter
ISN-R Theatre Group is coming back this year with the The Dumb Waiter, one act play written by Harold Pinter and directed by Carlos Miguel Roos.***Première: May 29th***
Cast:
Natalia Kadenko & John Gilmartin as Ben.
Stella Mantzourani & Siobhan Brett as Gus.
Synopsis: Two hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting for instructions in a shabby basement, somewhere in the city of Birmingham. The idle time brings apparently vacuous words and random dialogues that progressively unveil themselves as sharp concerns. Gus wonders about everything; Ben goes uneasy. The activity of the characters is not solely what determines the occurrences on stage. From the outside, unknown people mange to affect Ben and Gus in an intriguing way: an envelope slides under the door, a dumb waiter in the back of the room delivers food orders, a speaking tube whistles. With the advancement of the story, the situation turns increasingly odd, unnatural and closer to what life of contemporary man actually is, until its own logical grounds are broken in a revealing, shocking collapse. The Dumb Waiter revolves around the issue of human existence, by means of the particular happenings that take place between Ben, Gus and the outsiders, as images of our deepest anxieties.
The Dumb Waiter was written in 1957 by the Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, and premiered at the Hampstead Theatre Club, on 21 January 1960. The ISN-R Leiden Theatre Group is pleased to pursue this artistic enquiring process, on the basis of such a valuable piece of dramatic literature.
Past Workshops
Bertolt Brecht and the Art of Acting - An Introdction: Bertolt Brecht (February 10, 1898 – August 14, 1956) was one of the most influential German authors of the 20th century within the theatre field. His ideas about the Epic Theatre as interested in social relations of individuals, with an educational purpose (in a very peculiar sense) and implying unique artistic procedures, went far beyond stages, affecting thought and discourses of several artists in many aesthetic fields.
One of his must quoted and controversial statements is, no doubt, the 'Verfremdungseffekt.'
The Distancing Effect (or merely V-effect, as some scholars prefer to translate it) claims that there is a need of certain emotional distance, from the characters and from the story itself, that audience must keep in order to preserve an objective outlook of what is really happening on stage in terms of the Epic Theatre interests. Such a distance is required for the Epic actor/actress too, as the very basis of the characterisation technique: a critical way to approach to a role and to all dramatic situations related.
Certainly, a lot more than a few hours would be necessary to obtain in depth knowledge of this complex aesthetic and technical proposal.
Nevertheless, the aim of this workshop is just to allow a first-contact experience with such an idea, by the mean of some simple scenic routines exercised over the basis of the V-effect general conception.
The work with the body as a vessel for artistic expression and the playful attitude within the dramatic dynamics: these elements are to complete the way of this approach to the art of acting.