THE CARETAKER. To 28 March.

Bolton..

THE CARETAKER
by Harold Pinter.

Octagon Theatre To 28 March 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm 28 March 2pm.
Audio-described 25 March.
BSL Signed 26 March.
Runs 2hr 25min One interval.

TICKETS: 01204 520661.
www.octagonbol;ton.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 March.

Thought and care taken with Pinter’s play.
It’s a load of rubbish – Richard Foxton’s set for Harold Pinter’s 1960 play, that is. Old luggage, furniture and other detritus surrounds the old room where brothers Mick and Aston live – though rarely simultaneously - and where Aston brings the homeless Davies.

Aston’s the meek one, the longest speech in the play explaining why. It’s perhaps the only passage where we can believe what’s being said. And the confession is used against him by Davies. Both coward and opportunistic bully, Davies copies the violent Mick’s threatening way of speaking the old man’s alternative name “Jen – kins”. He seeks to fortify himself with Mick’s certainty, which is shown by alternating fury and smiling reason in Jeff Hordley’s sometimes over-rapid performance.

Paul Webster’s Davies might not be the most subtle, calculating Davies ever. But he’s clear and believable. Believable as a character that is – though hardly as a character anyone would trust. When things go well, after a moment’s incredulity he becomes expansive, the arms embracing good fortune, the voice keen to add corrobative details to his latest story. Only a blackout after Aston’s speech, he’s taken the younger man’s central chair, lolling easily, blissfully happy in his confidence, with smoking jacket and pipe.

Director Mark Babych emphasises how possession creates cruelty. Davies turns on his benefactor Aston, seeking complicity with his tormentor Mick. He latches on to people physically, bending over Mick, or nervously reaching a hand part-way towards him. When rejected, he cowers and hunches. The only selfless gesture is Aston’s embracing of Davies. And even that’s the fellow-felling of someone who’s suffered himself.

Yet, as a glance between the brothers after the famous ‘bag-handling’ scene indicates, Matthew Rixon’s Aston has his own strength (what, this production asks, was he like before the shock-treatment?).

Davies apart, the play’s built on meaning in silence as much as speech. Babych adds a sense of movement; this is a very active Caretaker. And one moment sums up the human isolation; as each character silently faces a different way, their faces turn wonderingly upwards at a drip into the bucket suspended from the ceiling.

Mick: Jeff Hordley.
Aston: Matthew Rixon.
Davies: Paul Webster.

Director: Mark Babych.
Designer: Richard Foxton.
Lighting: Brent Lees.
Sound: Andy Smith.
Assistant director: Hal Chambers.

2009-03-20 00:28:46