A Level Drama Trip to Pinter At The Pinter

On Thursday 7 February, Mr Godfrey took his Sixth Form drama students to watch and review two of Jamie Lloyd’s splendid rolling season of short Pinter works, at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London.

It’s hard to credit the profusion of top talent that Lloyd has managed to involve in this project over the past six months. I’m happy to report that this slight sense of incredulity persists as the series now draws to a close. Pinter 7 is an intriguing double-bill of early work.

Mr Godfrey 

In The Dumb Waiter (written in 1957 but not performed until 1960), Danny Dyer and Martin Freeman play Ben and Gus, a pair of contract killers anxiously awaiting orders in a windowless Birmingham basement. In A Slight Ache (which made its first appearance on radio in 1959), Gemma Whelan and John Heffernan are marvelously funny and creepy as the middle-class couple whose sexless, inadequate marriage is overturned when they invite a filthy old matchseller into their home on a midsummer day.

Eloise T suggested that her Lower Sixth drama class would prepare review notes on The Dumb Waiter, as they found it to be an intense experience.
Isabella F suggested that her Upper Sixth drama class would prepare review notes on A Slight Ache, as they felt that the radio play setting of this piece leant more to the audiences’ imagination.

Both plays were original and gripping and the students will produce excellent written reviews on these.