Play: The Dumb Waiter
Programme texts:
• Markus Isch as Gus
• Adrian A. Baumann as Ben
• Matt Kimmich, Director
• Acknowledgments
Reviews:
Adrian A. Baumann (Ben)
The Room
As Mege has pointed out, we started making plans to perform "The Dumb Waiter" more than a year ago, after having performed another play. However enthusiastically I agreed at the time, there was a very slight feeling of doubt. After all, I only knew one little passage from the play, which, as you know, had come up as an example in a linguistics proseminar.
Not long after, I read the play for the first time. Immediately, I had an image in my head. It was an old anatomy auditorium, the venue of a play I had seen about one or two years previously. The high-rising rows of benches, the creaky floorboards and the ancient, somewhat daunting architecture of the place seemed to fit the claustrophobic atmosphere of the play perfectly.
I put this suggestion to Mege and Matt, who was then freshly "commissioned" as the director, and after having a look at the place, we all agreed that this was the venue we were going for. Having heard that the room was not generally available anymore and under national heritage protection, we feared for the worst. However, after a couple of letters and a talk with the professor of Anatomy, Prof. Dr. P. H. Burri, all problems concerning the venue were solved. Having a venue before rehearsals start is not something very usual at our department...
A Slight Ache
In September, the rehearsals started in earnest. It was clear from the beginning that we would take an approach closer to method acting than to technical drama. However, as neither Mege nor me wanted to spend two months as a contract-killer, we had to make do with characterisation issues and trying to get at the feelings of the two hitmen in the play. This was quite a challenge for me, as a lot of what goes on in Ben's head is unconscious, or at least unconsciously pushed away. So there I was, faced with the task of consciously playing something unconscious. I realised that I couldn't possibly play around four or five corners just technically. I really had to start feeling, thinking and acting as Ben if I wanted to achieve credibility. While this was often depressing and sometimes painful, I gained some interesting insights by looking at the world - literally - through Ben's glasses. Now, after countless sessions in the Basement of Unitobler, I think I have an idea of what makes Ben the person he is - and what he thinks he is.
The Dumb Waiter
Apart from getting our characters straight, we were also faced with technical problems. After all, our venue didn't have a dumb waiter built in and we could hardly expect them to have one fitted specially for our play. Nobody really had an idea of how to cope with this, so countless sketches were made and torn up and several seemingly brilliant plans had to be abandoned because of practical or financial unfeasibility. One day, we decided to just go into the workshop, grab some wood and see what we can come up with. Suddenly, everything seemed to slot into place at once, so after a day we had our dumb waiter. (Note: for more efficient willing suspension of disbelief, the principles of the dumb waiter will not be revealed here. We know who they are...)
Silence
One of the things that fascinate me most about our departmental drama-productions is how everything - from the early stages of planning to the actual performances - goes through a development process. Thinking back to what I had in mind last year and looking at what we have now, I see a lot of old ideas left by the wayside, new ones that popped in at some stage, and a play that sort of kept the whole thing together. It has been an exciting play to work on. Whether or not it's exciting to watch I'll leave up to the audience.
Read the next programme item: Matt Kimmich, Director