A Slight Ache / The Dumb Waiter Tickets

The Jamie Lloyd Company is thrilled to welcome you to the Pinter at the Pinter season, designed to mark the tenth anniversary of the playwright Harold Pinter's death. The one-act plays – seventeen in total - span the great man's entire career and star a host of household celebs including Danny Dyer, Martin Freeman, Tamsin Greig, Jane Horrocks, Celia Imrie, Emma Naomi, Tracy Ann Oberman, David Suchet and Nicholas Woodeson.

The 17 plays are beautifully directed by Lloyd himself plus his fellow directors Patrick Marber, Ed Stambollouian, Lyndsey Turner and Lia Williams. If you adore Pinter at his influential, poetic, dramatic and provocative best, you'll love this series of brilliant one-act plays.  

A Slight Ache and The Dumb Waiter are the final two in the series, a couple of unmissable comedies that set out to explore the political machinations of those in power and their opposites, those who are powerless. With the Eastenders star Danny Dyer and remarkable actor Martin Freeman in the hot seat, it's going to be magical.

A Slight Ache and The Dumb Waiter were both penned in the late 1950s, and this time around they're both directed by Jamie Lloyd. So what can you expect from these quirky stories?

In A Slight Ache, from 1958, the dreams, desires and lives of a middle aged married couple are changed forever when a mysterious figure enters their elegant country home. How will Flora and Edward react? The piece enjoyed great reviews back in 2008 when performed at the National Theatre starring Simon Russell Beale and Clare Higgins. The match seller was played by Jamie Beamish, and it was directed by Iqbal Khan.

In The Dumb Waiter, from 1957, two hitmen, Gus and Ben, wait for the victim of their latest job in a derelict building. But their quest for meaning has unexpected consequences. The dumb waiter in the room keeps on delivering food, which puzzles both men. It's a wonderfully weird play, and some say the Dumb Waiter is one of Pinter's finest short pieces. What will you think?

Who is this show for?
Pinter's work is complex, intellectual and fascinating, written with adults in mind. It's best suited to mature over 16s.