THE CARETAKER by Harold Pinter. English Touring Theatre.
Tour
THE CARETAKER
by Harold Pinter
English Touring Theatre Tour to 1 December 2001
Runs 2hr 45min One interval + one pause
Review Timothy Ramsden 21 November at Greenwich Theatre
Well-acted revisionist production of the one about three men in a junk-filled room.Call it wilful or revelatory, at least Gari Jones' English Touring Theatre revival doesn't retreat into a routine plough through Pinter's early power-play in the wake of Michael Gambon's superb West End performance of Davies, the old tramp who manipulates his way into a temporary home. It's true that Davies is the least surprising interpretation here. That's no reflection on Malcolm Storry. He may not have Gambon's fluent absorption of the part into personal rhythms but it's clear from the start that he's into talk overdrive as a means of ingratiating himself. His attention suddenly sharpens when he thinks Aston might offer something to his advantage.
But it's with the property-owning brothers that the balance shifts. Generally, Mick is the leather-jacketed tough who torments the old man. Aston is the compliant one, jolted into submissiveness by the electric shock therapy he describes in his stand-out second act speech.
Not here. Lee Boardman goes out of his way to be accommodating. It's a risky approach, raising the question of what Mick is up to; surely, for instance, he can't be serious about offering terms to rent or sell the room to Davies.
But it allows a more complex view of Aston. Julian Lewis-Jones males him more assertive than usually played. The approach benefits the big speech, which is no longer a pathetic reminiscence but a protest, however quiet the anger, at violation by a state-sponsored medical institution. It also means Aston's refusal to swap beds with Davies is less an out of the blue resistance, more a final stage in a battle showing the weakness of the dispossessed. Whatever Aston's problems, he has a stake in a property and that gives him some control.
And there's an unexpectedly touching aspect to one of the few moments the brothers interact. It's where Davies tries to clutch his bag as Mick keeps grabbing it from him. Aston repeatedly retrieves the bag from Mick to return to Davies. Until the end, when Aston hands the disputed bag to Mick. It's not a matter of defeat here, but of brotherly links asserting themselves - one example of the way ETT's travelling Pinter show provokes a fresh look at this modern classic.
Greenwich Theatre to 24 November, Grand Theatre Blackpool 4-8 December
Mick: Lee Boardman
Aston: Julian Lewis-Jones
Davies: Malcolm Storry
Director: Gari Jones
Designer: Pamela McBain
Lighting: Ben Ormerod
Sound: Tom Lishman
Composer: Olly Fox
Fight director: Richard Ryan
2001-11-23 01:27:56