THE CARETAKER. Colchester to 2 March.

Colchester

THE CARETAKER
by Harold Pinter

Mercury Theatre To 2 March 2002
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS 01206 573 948
Review Timothy Ramsden 18 February

Another visit to Pinter's dingy room points up similarities between the three characters.Seeing this production shortly after The Birthday Party, whose Goldberg and McCann could be agents of the state invading people's homes, prompts the thought that Aston's long speech recalling his hospitalised electric-shock treatment in The Caretaker gives a shuddering example of institutional violence against the unwitting individual.

There have been more thoughtfully detailed accounts of this play. But less detail gives clarity to outlines. Each character uses aggression to defend their self-esteem. Aston does it quietly, advancing on the opportunistic Davies when he points out he's already given him money. Mick hits out physically, but Victor Gardener, for all his strong physique, suggests deliberate image-making rather than native toughness. Under the leather jacket, his clothes are as ordinary, and orderly, as his brother's.

Nigel Terry's Davies clutches raspingly at phrases as if they were either protective armour or a weapon, as the play charts his indigence turning to insistence when he thinks he's established in the house, before he's thrown out and his speech disintegrates.

Though Gardener's Mick uses violence to offer the appearance of strength he's quite a dreamer. At the start of acts one and three he sits or lies, staring vacantly ahead or hazily planning a future. His verbal riffs, on how to get around London by bus, or on arrangements to lease the room to Davies, cover a lack of action. What he does is rush out, or stop speaking mid-track, when his brother appears - all low status behaviour.

Ian Kirkby's Aston, evading Davies' question on ownership of the house with a moment's gap and evident prevarication, also, metaphorically, stares vacantly ahead. He makes no progress with the plug he's fixing and stops mid-wood sanding to talk of going out to buy a saw-bench. His construction is no more convincing than Mick's capacity for destruction.

As Davies will never collect his papers from Sidcup, this Mick will never draw up a contract, nor Aston build his shed. It may be the old man whose sentences break up as the lights finally fade, but it's entirely right all three are left standing helpless, together yet alone.

Mick: Victor Gardener
Aston: Ian Kirkby
Davies: Nigel Terry

Director: Adrian Stokes
Designer: David Thomas
Lighting: Helen Morley
Fight director: Richard Ryan

2002-02-19 08:28:10