Photo: Golam Mahbub

Harold Pinter's one-act play "The Dumb Waiter" was staged on March 13 at the Natmandal auditorium, Dhaka University. The staging was part of the ongoing theatre festival by the Department of Theatre, DU.
Abdul Munim Tarafdar directed the play, translated by Khairul Alam Sabuj.
"The Dumb Waiter" is a thrilling story of two hit-men who are waiting in a basement for their assignment. When the play begins, the audience finds Ben, the senior assassin for hire, reading a newspaper. Gus, the younger of the two, asks many irrelevant questions as they wait.
They argue over pointless things such as the semantics of 'light the kettle' and 'put on the kettle'. Ben continues reading his paper most of the time, and reads out excerpts of it to Gus at times, to change the topic of conversation it seems. Ben gets increasingly animated when reading out news, and Gus' questions become more and more irritating.
In the back of the room is a waiter, who delivers occasional food orders. This is mysterious and both characters seem to be puzzled as to why these orders keep on coming.
Gus leaves the room to get a drink and the waiter notifies him that the target has arrived and is on his way to the room. Ben shouts for Gus, who is still out of the room. The door opens, Ben points his gun, and Gus enters.
There is a long pause as the two stare at each other before the curtain comes down. The implication is that the hit-men have been employed to take each other out.
Zayed Julhas and Naved Rahman played Ben and Gus respectively. Apart from directing the play, Munim Tarafdar also did the set, light and costume designing.
Today is the last day of the fortnight-long theatre festival. Traditional Bichar Gaan will be staged at Natmandal auditorium today, starting from 6:30pm. Syed Muhammad Zubayer will direct the pala that will highlight Guru-Shishya conversation through singing.