Bankside Repertory Theatre to Produce "The Dumb Waiter" Play

ELSAH - Bankside Repertory Theatre will host a production of “The Dumb Waiter” as their first in-person play since the COVID-19 pandemic.

At 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 2–5, 2024, community members can enjoy the 90-minute one-act play at Bankside Repertory Theatre on the Principia College campus. The play, written in 1957 by Harold Pinter, tells the story of two hitmen waiting for an assignment. Actors John O’Hagan and Riley Capp look forward to sharing the story with the community.

“Personally, I can’t wait to be on the stage with this particular play at this particular time with the local community seeing and engaging with this work,” O’Hagan said. “It’s really incredibly thought-provoking as well as entertaining, so I think anybody coming to see it is going to walk away with a lot to talk about, a lot to think about.”

O’Hagan also works as a professor at Principia, and Capp was previously one of his students. When they agreed to take on this project together, both men knew they had something special.

Over the course of rehearsals, they have discovered that the play works best with the traditional British accents. They’ve also analyzed more details from the script, resulting in an especially interesting and unique production.

“Within the process of the work, we’ve made some discoveries in this production and the way we’re rehearsing the work that I haven’t seen reflected in any other production of ‘The Dumb Waiter,’” O’Hagan explained. “I think we’ve found a couple of moments that we’ve actually taken in slightly different directions than what most productions have done, and I think it opens up greater opportunity for what the audience can get out of the play.”

O’Hagan added Capp is “the perfect counterpart” to his character, as well as a “walking billboard” for the Principia College theater program. As a Principia alum, Capp said he is excited to return to the Riverbend area to perform here again, and he is especially thrilled to be working with O’Hagan.

“Having people that not only also want to do the work but that I genuinely enjoy doing it with is such a lifeline to being able to even get the art out there in the first place,” Capp said. “I got a start here, which is why it’s really cool to be able to come back and perform in this community and come back all the way to where I started this journey.”

Capp and O’Hagan are both eager to reintroduce live theater to Bankside Repertory Theatre for the first time since 2018. They hope it’s as powerful an experience for the audience as it is for the actors. O’Hagan pointed out that this is an affordable way to experience live theater, and both he and Capp hope to see many people in attendance throughout the play’s run.

“I know how Riley works, he knows how I work, and I guarantee you, it’s not going to be the same thing every night. We’re going to find different things every night. It is absolutely live,” he said. “It’s different every night. It’s very different because it can’t be anything but.”

Tickets for “The Dumb Waiter” cost $5 for Principia students and $12 for the general public. You can purchase tickets at the door. Enter below for the chance to win four free tickets.

For more information about Bankside Repertory Theatre’s production of “The Dumb Waiter, visit the official Bankside Repertory Theatre website at BanksideRep.com or their Facebook page.

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