THE CARETAKER. To 11 November.

Nottingham

THE CARETAKER
by Harold Pinter

Nottingham Playhouse To 11 November 2006
Tue-Sat 7.45pm Mat 2, 9 Nov 1.30pm, Sat 3, 11 Nov 3pm
Audio-described 7,8 Nov
Post-show discussion 2 Nov 7.45pm
Review: Alan Geary: 30 October 2006

Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS: 0115 941 9419
www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
Review: Alan Geary 30 October

A fine production, obviously. The only question is whether, besides being important, the play is great. It might well be both.You can see the fleas jumping about on Colin Tarrant when he first comes on in a wrecked overcoat, fidgeting and wincing as if he’s itching all over, and constantly pulling his belt-less trousers up. The assertive talk and aggressive pointing, entirely appropriate for Davies, also recalls the Brian Clough character Tarrant played in his last outing at the Playhouse. The only thing awry is a lack of real cumulative menace; what we do get is Davies’s calculated ingratiation and manipulative quality.

The menace, crucial to this play, comes partly from occasional snatches of background music, mostly from the sadistic Mick [Colin Wells], who appears, even before the action starts, in highly polished black shoes, slicked hair and leather jacket to take a surly look round the stage.

Daniel Copeland’s Aston is the most engaging. His thickset frame, balding head, simple, open face, and shambling gait give him a baby-like appearance. He’s full of naive goodwill and ineffectualness; you know he’s not going to get that shed built, any more than Davies will get those papers sorted out in Sidcup.

The three interact on an appallingly cluttered attic set, with supermarket trolley, one chair, a disconnected gas cooker and open window, a dirty lace curtain fluttering in the wind.

There’s both theatre of the absurd: the fractured text, the non-sequiturs, the failure of communication and an attempt to reproduce reality; Pinter has a sympathetic ear for the way not just the down-trodden but all of us speak across each other.

There’s humanity, and pathos too, in, for instance, the way Aston folds his old suit up neatly when he turns in each night.

Most of the humour lies in incongruities: Mick’s ironically pompous dialogue, the smoking jacket amid the squalor, Aston’s touching explanation of what a ‘jig-saw’ is, or Davies’s description of the ‘bastards’ at the monastery near Luton. And there’s the way conversation stops every time a drop of water from the leaking roof pings into the bucket.

This is a fine production. Is The Caretaker a great play? It’s certainly important; it might well be great as well.

Davies: Colin Tarrant
Aston: Daniel Copeland
Mick: Colin Wells

Director: Andrew Breakwell
Designer: Jane Linz Roberts
Lighting: Ciaran Bagnall

2006-11-01 00:33:44