The Dwarfs

Synopsis

Len, Pete and Mark are old mates. They have the sort of friendship that it is difficult to survive. When the narcissistic Pete falls in love with Virginia the comradeship of their small world starts to disintegrate into mistrust. As Pete and Mark s rivalry escalates, Len's paranoia spirals into insanity, and he starts to imagine a party of dwarfs hovering on the edge of his already strange existence. The Dwarfs is adapted from Pinter s first work and his only novel. Semi-autobiographical, it is a fascinating, disturbing and humorous study of Pinter from his own hand.

Our Review:

24 April 2003

Originally a semi-autobiographical novel by Harold Pinter, this new adaptation by Kerry Lee Crabbe of The Dwarfs receives its world premiere at the Tricycle Theatre. The story tells of three male friends, a woman and a betrayal, but here plot is secondary to Pinter’s elusive themes.

The evening is rather like a giant puzzle, full of contradictions; poetic and littered with literary references while at the same time heavily employing the vernacular. It is verbose at times, sparse and ‘Pinter-esque’ at others. Pinter uses the most graphic imagery to remind us of the mortality of these characters, and the drama comes from each individual’s battle to make sense of their world.

The piece suggests that friendships are merely a means of research: if we can understand one another’s erratic behaviour perhaps that will go some way to explaining our own existence. Indeed, the characters here - Len, Mark, Pete and the ironically named Virginia - never communic...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (80.193.222.20) - 30 April 2003:

An interesting play of Pinter’s first novel. It’s the kind of play difficult to say what its about (bar saying the lives of three guys and a girl, working class and clever, in 50’s London), it’s also at a very early stage in the development of the characters, you never really know or get involved with the people on stage. You can see that this is a very early idea, but some of his trademark style is evident. There really was something so bitty about the play, the story left so many questions to be answered (and not in a good way), you might even say the play was confused. The acting is on the whole quite good (an excellent Mark Rice as Len wonderfully portrayed as a slightly autistic and awkward character), bar Daisy Haggard (not helped by her part) who was a tad wooden at times (but competent most of the time). This is a must for any Pinter Fans, but not a revelation by any stretch of the imagination. ...

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