A play from Nobel Prize-winning author Harold Pinter is being given a new lease of life this spring.

Directed by Susie Conte for the Old Mill Theatre's short play season, The Dumb Waiter features Gus and Ben in a Birmingham basement, awaiting instructions for their next job. Gus needs matches while Ben has a newspaper – and both men have revolvers.

The play is set in set in a dingy basement, creating a feeling of claustrophobia and unease.

Gus and Ben's dialogue hides the rising tension that develops between them and, similar to Pinter’s famous Waiting for Godot, there is an unseen character who appears to be pulling the strings.

Joining The Dumb Waiter for the season of short plays is No Exit by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and the world premiere of Noel O’Neill’s Snow and Ash.

Directed by Maree Grayden and adapted by Chris Thomas, No Exit is a depiction of the afterlife where three dead characters are punished by being locked into a room together for eternity – it’s the play that coined the phrase “hell is other people”.

Snow and Ash, directed by Valerie Dragojevic, follows two clowns left behind by a travelling circus who suddenly find themselves in a country with no liberty or freedom of speech.

The Dumb Waiter and Snow and Ash play at 8pm, September 19, 20, October 3, 4 and 5 with a 2pm matinee September 22.

No Exit plays on the same dates except October 4 and 5 when it will be replaced by Jerome McDonough’s Juvie on those two nights. Set in a juvenile detention centre, young suspects come out of their cells to tell why and how they were caught.

Tickets are $25, $20 concession – book on 9367 8719, oldmilltheatre@iinet.net.au or at http://oldmilltheatre.com.au/tickets.

The heritage-listed Old Mill Theatre is on Mends Street, South Perth, opposite the Windsor Hotel and Australia Post.