IT comes as a surprise to learn that only now is York Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden directing his first Harold Pinter production, The Dumb Waiter.

However, Damian himself is "not overly surprised" at the wait to handle one of the greats of post-war English drama.

"I was associate director for five years at Hull Truck, where the focus was on new work and especially on John Godber's work. I've never done David Hare either; there are always some writers that you don't get to do for some time for some reason, " he says.

"I've done Joe Orton, but only at college, and also there's the factor that the most recent playwrights are not quite classics yet, so there's a cyclical thing about when people will come back into fashion, as these things tend to go in waves.

"Pinter is a recent Nobel Prize winner and that's brought him back into the headlines, and because he's one of our national playwrights, when they come back into the zeitgeist, you reassess where you are with them."

So, where are you with Harold Pinter, Damian?

"Pinter is a complex writer; he's not part of the canon of easy sells.

He would not be your first port of call if you were looking for the popular canon of work, and certainly not populist, " he says.

"But because The Dumb Waiter is quite early Pinter it dates from 1960, it's a fantastic example of his very particular style of presenting narrative 0n stage.

"It's a very stylised work, so it's not simple in that sense as so much of what takes place on stage happens in the pauses, and it happens in their inner world rather than what is evident outside."

What challenges do Robert Pickavance and Eamonn Fleming face in their roles as seasoned assassin Ben and novice accomplice Gus, as they wait for the next hit?

"The tough part of it is how to make them so real that you show the inner character, but without that subtext being heavy handed.

You have to find the balance, presenting the true subtext without it becoming mawkish or melodramatic, " Damian says.

"So you have to go through the text again and again, pushing the extremes of presentation. How long can that silence last? How does it affect each character? How big does it have to be to make it recognisable that it's significant rather than just dead time?"

Pause for thought indeed.

The Dumb Waiter runs at The Studio, York Theatre Royal until June 16. Box office: 01904 623568.