Pinter & a Pair of Chekhov's Shorts

This Autumn Compass present a hat-trick of short plays ...

THE DUMB WAITER
By Harold Pinter

A Hit Man Comedy

This modern classic is Harold Pinter at his most accessible. It’s set in a claustrophobic, seedy basement flat where Gus and Ben, two bickering and increasingly anxious assassins await instructions for their next assignment.

A short and dynamic piece by the Nobel Prize winning playwright it has all the ingredients that created the term Pinteresque; absurdity, humour and terror packed like sardines into an exhilarating 50 minutes.

THE EVILS OF TOBACCO
By Anton Chekhov

Meet hen-pecked Mr Nyukhin

He’s here to give you a talk about the evils of tobacco but actually has lots of other things on his mind. He wants to tell you his troubles. How he is plagued by the number thirteen and by his daughters who put pepper in his snuff box. Amongst other things… No wonder he’s got a twitch!

THE PROPOSAL
By Anton Chekhov

A merry jest in one act

Ivan Lomov, a bag of nerves, desperately wants to marry Natasha, the daughter of his neighbour. But while making his proposal he is so hindered by excruciating nervousness that rather than ending up in the arms of his beloved they end up in a flaming row.

Can love save the day or will all be lost?