An Evening on the Edge of Reason

The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter

About Reason in the Theatre

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About Gender

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About Magritte

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About Many Other Things

Gender Trouble - A Director's Dilemma

I had decided to cast Pinter's characters Gus and Ben as women.

Easy, should work fine, no problem at all. I saw the characters as human beings, not necessarily as male.

"But -," said my actresses.

I can't help thinking that without those people hopping about on stage, theatre would be a lot less complicated. I suppose that 'my actresses' even have a problem with being called that.

Anyway. Madames insisted on being told how to behave. "Are we women playing women? Women playing men? Ore are we women playing women playing men?" - What's the use in telling them about the universality of some things, when even how one takes a seat marks a major gender divide? As claimed my actresses ...

Rehearsals turned into some sort of feminist rights debate group (how debatable are female rights in the first place?).

Myself: "So why would Ben do this? Is he nervous or what?"

Verena: "SHE!"

Myself: "Ok, then, so is Ben nervous?"

Eventually, a brilliant idea radically changed our views about the characters. Unfortunately, it was not myself who came up with it.

Anne: "Benita - that was that English teacher back in Wales!" What an insight. "From now on, I shall think of Ben in terms of Benita."

Likewise, Gus was transformed into Augusta. Benita and Augusta - just like a 21st century version of Thelma and Louise. So, finally, all problems were solved, and things went smoothly from here. It's only occasionally that the name 'Augusta' bothers me a bit. We should have found him a nicer one.