Productions return to the Meramec Theatre after stage repairs
BY: EMILY WEBER
Staff Writer
The Meramec Theatre Company is approaching its premiere of “The Dumb Waiter,” directed by longtime Meramec Professor Keith Oliver. The production runs through Oct. 5-9.
The Dumb Waiter is a one-act written by Harold Pinter and it tells the story of two hired assassins named Ben and Gus while they wait in a basement room for their target to appear. In their boredom, the two hitmen bicker about trivial issues and rehearse the murder. Meanwhile, their sense of reality begins to falter, and strange events start to unfold inside the basement.
The Montage spoke with numerous individuals involved with the production including actors Tariq Malik and Jarek Templeton, Stage Manager Lexie Weber, Macy Gillick, prop head, and Director Keith Oliver.
“The two-man show offers an interesting way to perform,” said Tariq Malik. “It’s interesting because with a large show you have a sense of a big family. But with a small show there’s a sense of more detail,” Malik said.
This is Malik’s first year at Meramec, but he has been in eight productions. He plays the character Gus. “It’s fascinating because you learn how they think, what they do, And why they do it. Now ol’ Gus just lives upstairs,” Malik said.
“She helps me to relax and I am worried about her in the coming weeks,” said Malik of Stage Manager Weber. “I never really met anyone like Jarek,” said Malik of Templeton.
Jarek Templeton plays Ben and said he enjoys working with Malik. “We have good chemistry and play off on each other,” said Templeton. “I’d say it’s very investigative. It’s like journalism to me. What goes through my mind the most and what my main concern is about the nuance of the character. The idea is not to stay in one place for too long, otherwise the character will stagnate. I want to give this character depth so finding places to take him is what my director and I have really been working on from day one. For example: he may feel a certain emotion and he may need to be in that state for a while-how can I justify that and try not to make him seem like that’s all there is to his character? How does my character justify it? Does he justify it? With this character, specifically, I’d say these questions are most useful,” said Templeton.
“Keith is a fun, laid-back, and a great guy,” said Lexie Weber, stage manager. This is Weber’s first year at Meramec, but she has been a part of fourteen productions, having even worked with Malik on five previous shows. “He’s a good actor; a really good actor and he has a lot of potential. It is a bonus that we are friends and that we’ve known each other for so long. He’s a fun guy, he’s really fun,” said Weber of Malik.
“I think it’s cool because the cast can really get to know each other and play off of each other,” said Macy Gillick. This is Gillick’s first year at Meramec, but she has been a part of around thirteen high school productions.
The productions Director, Professor Keith Oliver, spoke on what he thought the audience would gain from this play. “Well,” he said, “for me this play has on many levels a humorous examination of human nature and what we will do to endure the small ‘between’ moments.”
Oliver elaborated further, “We wait. It is said that outside of sleep and moments we are in motion, attentive to a task – we wait. Approximately six months in an average lifetime waiting…on hold for customer service, in line, traffic…etc. Gus and Ben wait, and I believe the audience will understand the many perspectives each character has about their shared wait in ‘real time’ for something to happen in the play.”
He continued, “The characters of Gus and Ben are cramped into a restrictive basement space. They talk about the outside world, but are not connected to many people’s emotions or understanding about what is happening in the world outside of their jobs. [And] finally, the aspect of dark humor in the play. This play has a menacing quality about it, which at its core is about laughter surrounded by a state of chaos and ruin.”
The show is free of charge, and the show times are October 5-8 at 7:30 pm and October 9 at 2:00 pm.
