The Dumb Waiter The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter is a play influenced by Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Pinter's work is about two men, Ben and Gus, who seem to work together even though no one really knows what they do. The show begins with Gus trying to fill the empty space evident by his actions. Ben is reading the newspaper and doesn't seem to notice the silence of the scene, but Gus is trying to find something to fill this silence. The setting is that of a basement room without windows and with a door leading to the outside. This room contains two beds and two unidentified objects in the walls. The first lines of the play concern what Ben reads in his newspaper and this occurs after a long silence filled by Gus's actions of taking off his shoes to find matches and cigarettes. They then begin to discuss the events in the newspaper where an old man was hit by a truck. The use of the word argument in relation to this scene is used loosely because it isn't actually an argument because Ben doesn't seem to really want to argue with Gus, he just wants to pass on the information found in the newspaper. As the show continues, there is more waiting and silence. Gus continually goes to the bathroom to occupy his time and repeatedly tries to ask Ben questions. Ben then tells Gus to make tea and to stop trying to have a conversation. This coldness of Ben's towards Gus seems to foreshadow the final ending. Gus doesn't make the tea right away and seems to loiter. He keeps making statements like “I hope this isn't a long work” (131) and these statements create a sense of repetition. They seem to do a job every week or so and go through all the same motions before starting the job. The... center of the card... his rooms on the other sides of the basement. This is especially so that there can be an entrance and exit to the bathroom and kitchen and also a passage door. One door will be in the center of the scene, right next to the wall, it will be the door to the kitchen and bathroom, the other will be in front and will be the door to the passage. The beds will be slightly angled but close to the wall to show that the room is not a formal room but just a makeshift room, and will be placed center stage and center stage left. Ben will start by sitting on his bed, which is on the left. As indicated in the captions, the dumbwaiter will be located between the two beds, but will initially be closed, therefore not easily recognizable. The attached drawing shows how the stage will be arranged and shows the angular shape of the room better than can be described.