In February Jon Erik will be heading back to his hometown Kristiansand to play the role of Gus in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter (Kjøkkenheisen). In addition to starring in it, he will produce the play with his colleague André Lassemo. Together they run the theater company Kanon Produksjon, and in 2019 they produced TERRORISTENE at Kristiansand Kanonmuseum, and JUL PÅ WØYEN in Bærum. Kanon Produksjon is happy to announce, in collaboration with Teateret in Kristiansand, their very first play in 2020.
The hitmen Ben and Gus are awaiting further instructions in a basement of an abandoned restaurant. They are chatting about football, boiling tea, newspapers and a bag of chips. Everyday things. While having their guns at the ready. Pretty absurd. But who will their guns be pointed at? And why are they not getting instructions? The tension is rising. When strange messages starts to come from above, they can’t seem to control the fear of something being wrong. Who is upstairs? Where is their victim? And what in the world is Macaroni Pastitsio?
The Dumb Waiter is a humorous, dark and absurd play. We meet two quite recognizable characters with different backgrounds and different attitudes toward the situation they find themselves in. Gus, the inexperienced, is open and seeking, while Ben, the more experienced, and also the boss of the duo, is enclosed. Ben is not open to Gus’s thoughts and questions, and carries most of the blame as to why the dialogue between them consists of talking at each other and not to each other.