Usher Nonsense # 22 – The Caretaker
THE CARETAKER By Harold Pinter; directed by David Jones
Sets by John Lee Beatty (Rabbit Hole, Defiance,Color Purple, Doubt, Wonderful Town) ; Costumes by Jane
Greenwood; Lighting by Peter Kaczorowski (Grey Gardens, Naked Girl on The Appian Way, Twentieth Century,
Wonderful Town, Pajama Game)
WITH: Aidan Gillen (Mick), Kyle MacLachlan (Aston) and Patrick Stewart (Davies).
At the American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, Manhattan.
The first time I ever saw a Pinter play was in my first year at college. I had come from a world of high school drama (and
not bad stuff) that was all musicals and a few classic plays like "Glass Menagerie" and "Under Milkwood". So when I
watched this Pinter play that featured a strange family, a strange visitor, and dialogue that escaped me altogether, I thought
I had gone to another planet. All these years later I still feel that way, but it is now the Pinter planet to me, and I have
visited several times since then.
The Caretaker is a homeless man who is taken in by a slow man who has been damaged by life and lives in a run down
house owned by his brother who moves through life like a jet stream, fast enough to avoid the contact that might lead to
damage. The Caretaker moves in from "out there" and becomes the fulcrum that connects these two brothers. It's about
inner vs. outer. What's inside this house and what's outside. There is even a window on this fantastic set that seems to
call to these men. Dreams of the future become dull, moldy ways to pass the minutes. Reality is something to be tackled
down or ignored all together. The past is uncertain.
I was pleasantly surprised by Stewart's Davis. He brings the mess of "out there" into the vacuum of MacLachlan's life and
provides just enough stimulation to prick him into conversation. By the end of the play I thought I could smell Stweart's
crusty outer layer. Aidan Gillen as Mick is electric without letup and you wonder if he might have been the probe they
attatched to MacLachlan in the hospital. He doesn't seem to care what he says as much as he cares that he says it ALL in
one breath. The combination is unbalanced, though, with MacLachlan moving as if he were underwater, Stewart as though
he were treading water, and Aidan as though he were tap dancing across it at the precise moment it freezes.
Still, it is a production that makes me want to see other productions of the same piece. It is a whole universe in a play. I
want to visit it again.
And if you haven't been to to the American Airlines Theatre - go go go go go. It is like a grand old ship.
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