The Caretaker - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Caretaker is a play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

by Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...

. It was first published by both Encore Publishing

Encore Theatre Magazine

Encore Theatre Magazine is an online magazine relating to contemporary theatre published in the United Kingdom. A monthly internet publication begun in July 2006, it is based on a now-defunct magazine of the same title , which had a brief but influential life from 1954 to 1965: Articles...

(publisher of Encore Magazine) and Eyre Methuen in 1960. The sixth play that Pinter wrote for stage or television production, it was his first significant commercial success. The play was first performed on stage at the Arts Theatre

Arts Theatre

The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It now operates as the West End's smallest commercial receiving house.-History:...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, on 27 April 1960; it transferred to the Duchess Theatre

Duchess Theatre

The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street, near Aldwych.The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest 'proscenium arched' West End theatres. It has 479 seats on two levels....

the next month. Its first run included 444 performances.

Origins and contexts of the play

Pinter's own comment on the source of three of his major plays is frequently quoted by critics :
According to his official authorised biographer, Michael Billington

Michael Billington (critic)

Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised...

, Pinter "talked in detail about the play's origins" in images from his own personal experience and observations for the first time with him (in the mid 1990s), when Pinter told Billington that he wrote the play while he and his first wife Vivien Merchant

Vivien Merchant

Vivien Merchant was a British actress.-Career:Merchant performed in many stage productions and several films, including Alfie and Frenzy...

For earlier critics, like Martin Esslin

Martin Esslin

Martin Julius Esslin OBE was a Hungarian-born English producer and playwright dramatist, journalist, adaptor and translator, critic, academic scholar and professor of drama best known for coining the term "Theatre of the Absurd" in his work of that name...

, The Caretaker suggests aspects of the Theatre of the Absurd

Theatre of the Absurd

The Theatre of the Absurd is a designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction, written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre which has evolved from their work...

, described by Esslin in his eponymous book coining that term first published in 1961; according to Esslin, absurdist drama by writers such as Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...

, Eugène Ionesco

Eugène Ionesco

Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian and French playwright and dramatist, and one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd...

, Jean Genet

Jean Genet

Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...

, and Edward Albee

Edward Albee

Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...

, and others was prominent in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a reaction to chaos witnessed in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

and the state of the world after the war.

Billington observes that "The idea that [Davies] can affirm his identity and recover his papers by journeying to Sidcup

Sidcup

Sidcup is a district in South East London in the London Borough of Bexley and small parts of the district in the London Borough of Greenwich.Located south east of Charing Cross, Sidcup is bordered by the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Bromley and Kent County Council, and whilst now part of...

is perhaps the greatest delusion of all, although one with its source in reality"; as "Pinter's old Hackney friend Morris Wernick recalls, 'It is undoubtedly true that Harold, with a writer's ear, picked up words and phrases from each of us. He also picked up locales. The Sidcup in The Caretaker comes from the fact that the Royal Artillery

Royal Artillery

The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...

HQ was there when I was a National Service

Conscription in the United Kingdom

Conscription in the United Kingdom has existed for two periods in modern times. The first was from 1916 to 1919, the second was from 1939 to 1960, with the last conscripted soldiers leaving the service in 1963...

man and its almost mythical quality as the fount of all permission and record was a source.' To English ears," Billington continues, "Sidcup has faintly comic overtones of suburban respectability. For Davies it is a Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

ish Eldorado

El Dorado

El Dorado is the name of a Muisca tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and, as an initiation rite, dived into a highland lake.Later it became the name of a legendary "Lost City of Gold" that has fascinated – and so far eluded – explorers since the days of the Spanish Conquistadors...

: the place that can solve all the problems about his unresolved identity and uncertain past, present and future" (122).

About directing a production of The Caretaker at the Roundabout Theatre Company in 2003, David Jones

David Jones (director)

David Hugh Jones was a British stage, television, and film director.-Personal history:Jones was born in Poole, Dorset, the son of John David Jones and his wife Gwendolen Agnes Langworthy...

observed:

Characters

[As listed in the text:]

Mick, a man in his late twenties
Aston, a man in his early thirties
Davies, an old man

Synopsis

This three-act play involves interactions between a mentally-challenged man, Aston; a tramp, Davies, whom Aston brings home to his attic room; and Aston's younger brother (Mick), who appears responsible for the house.

Act I

A night in winter
[Scene 1]
Aston has invited Davies, a homeless man, into his apartment after rescuing him from a bar fight (7–9). Davies comments on the apartment and criticizes the fact that it is cluttered and badly kept. Aston attempts to find him a pair of shoes for Davies but Davies rejects all the offers. Once he turns down a pair that doesn’t fit well enough and another that has the wrong colour laces. Early on, Davies reveals to Aston that his real name is not "Bernard Jenkins", his "assumed name", but really "Mac Davies" (19–20, 25). He claims that his papers validating this fact are in Sidcup

Sidcup

and that he must and will return there to retrieve them just as soon as he has a good pair of shoes. Aston and Davies discuss where he will sleep and the problem of the "bucket" attached to the ceiling to catch dripping rain water from the leaky roof (20–21) and Davies "gets into bed" while "ASTON sits, poking his [electrical] plug (21).
[Scene 2]:

The LIGHTS FADE OUT. Darkness.

LIGHTS UP. Morning. (21)
As Aston dresses for the day, Davies awakes with a start, and Aston informs Davies that he was kept up all night by Davies muttering in his sleep. Davies denies that he made any noise and blames the racket on the neighbors, revealing his fear of foreigners: "I tell you what, maybe it were them Blacks" (23). Aston informs Davies that he is going out but invites him to stay if he likes, indicating that he trusts him (23–24), something unexpected by Davies; for, as soon as Aston does leave the room (27), Davies begins rummaging through Aston's "stuff" (27–28) but he is interrupted when Mick, Aston’s brother, unexpectedly arrives, "moves upstage, silently," "slides across the room" and then suddenly "seizes Davies' "arm and forces it up his back," in response to which "DAVIES screams," and they engage in a minutely-choreographed struggle, which Mick wins (28–29), ending Act One with the "Curtain" line, "What's the game?" (29).

Act II

[Scene 1]

A few seconds later

Mick demands to know Davies' name, which the latter gives as "Jenkins" (30), interrogates him about how well he slept the night before (30), wonders whether or not Davies is actually "a foreigner"—to which Davies retorts that he "was" indeed (in Mick's phrase) "Born and bred in the British Isles" (33)—going on to accuse Davies of being "an old robber […] an old skate" who is "stinking the place out" (35), and spinning a verbal web full of banking jargon designed to confuse Davies, while stating, hyperbolically, that his brother Aston is "a number one decorator" (36), either an outright lie or self-deceptive wishful thinking on his part. Just as Mick reaches the climactic line of his diatribe geared to put the old tramp off balance—"Who do you bank with?" (36), Aston enters with a "bag" ostensibly for Davies, and the brothers debate how to fix the leaking roof and Davies interrupts to inject the more practical question: "What do you do . . . when that bucket's full?" (37) and Aston simply says, "Empty it" (37). The three battle over the "bag" that Aston has brought Davies, one of the most comic and often-cited Beckettian routines in the play (38–39). After Mick leaves, and Davies recognises him to be "a real joker, that lad" (40), they discuss Mick's work in "the building trade" and Davies ultimately discloses that the bag they have fought over and that he was so determined to hold on to "ain't my bag" at all (41). Aston offers Davies the job of Caretaker, (42–43), leading to Davies' various assorted animadversions about the dangers that he faces for "going under an assumed name" and possibly being found out by anyone who might "ring the bell called Caretaker" (44).
[Scene 2]

THE LIGHTS FADE TO BLACKOUT.

THEN UP TO DIM LIGHT THROUGH THE WINDOW.

A door bangs.

Sound of a key in the door of the room.

DAVIES enters, closes the door, and tries the light switch, on, off, on, off.

It appears to Davies that "the damn light's gone now," but, it becomes clear that Mick has sneaked back into the room in the dark and removed the bulb; he starts up "the electrolux" and scares Davies almost witless before claiming "I was just doing some spring cleaning" and returning the bulb to its socket (45). After a discussion with Davies about the place being his "responsibility" and his ambitions to fix it up, Mick also offers Davies the job of "caretaker" (46–50), but pushes his luck with Mick when he observes negative things about Aston, like the idea that he "doesn't like work" or is "a bit of a funny bloke" for "Not liking work" (Davies' camouflage of what he really is referring to), leading Mick to observe that Davies is "getting hypocritical" and "too glib" (50), and they turn to the absurd details of "a small financial agreement" relating to Davies' possibly doing "a bit of caretaking" or "looking after the place" for Mick (51), and then back to the inevitable call for "references" and the perpetually-necessary trip to Sidcup to get Davies' identity "papers" (51–52).
[Scene 3]

Morning

Davies wakes up and complains to Aston about how badly he slept. He blames various aspects of the apartment's set up. Aston suggests adjustments but Davies proves to be callous and inflexible. Aston tells the story of how he was checked into a mental hospital and given electric shock therapy, but when he tried to escape from the hospital he was shocked while standing, leaving him with permanent brain damage; he ends by saying, "I've often thought of going back and trying to find the man who did that to me. But I want to do something first. I want to build that shed out in the garden" (54–57). Critics regard Aston's monologue, the longest of the play, as the "climax" of the plot. In dramaturgical terms, what follows is part of the plot's "falling action".

Act III

[Scene 1]

Two weeks later [… ]Afternoon.

Davies and Mick discuss the apartment. Mick relates "(ruminatively)" in great detail what he would do to redecorate it (60). When asked who "would live there," Mick's response "My brother and me" leads Davies to complain about Aston's inability to be social and just about every other aspect of Aston's behaviour (61–63). Though initially invited to be a "caretaker," first by Aston and then by Mick, he begins to ingratiate himself with Mick, who acts as if he were an unwitting accomplice in Davies' eventual conspiracy to take over and fix up the apartment without Aston's involvement (64) an outright betrayal of the brother who actually took him in and attempted to find his "belongings"; but just then Aston enters and gives Davies yet another pair of shoes which he grudgingly accepts, speaking of "going down to Sidcup" in order "to get" his "papers" again (65–66).
[Scene 2]

That night

Davies brings up his plan when talking to Aston, whom he insults by throwing back in his face the details of his treatment in the mental institution (66–67), leading Aston, in a vast understatement, to respond: "I . . . I think it's about time you found somewhere else. I don't think we're hitting it off" (68). When finally threatened by Davies pointing a knife at him, Aston tells Davies to leave: "Get your stuff" (69). Davies, outraged, claims that Mick will take his side and kick Aston out instead and leaves in a fury, concluding (mistakenly): "Now I know who I can trust" (69).
[Scene 3]

Later

Davies reenters with Mick explaining the fight that occurred earlier and complaining still more bitterly about Mick's brother, Aston (70–71). Eventually, Mick takes Aston's side, beginning with the observation "You get a bit out of your depth sometimes, don't you?" (71). Mick forces Davies to disclose that his "real name" is Davies and his "assumed name" is "Jenkins" and, after Davies calls Aston "nutty", Mick appears to take offense at what he terms Davies' "impertinent thing to say," concludes, "I'm compelled to pay you off for your caretaking work. Here's half a dollar," and stresses his need to turn back to his own "business" affairs (74). When Aston comes back into the apartment, the brothers face each other," "They look at each other. Both are smiling, faintly" (75). Using the excuse of having returned for his "pipe" (given to him earlier through the generosity of Aston), Davies turns to beg Aston to let him stay (75–77). But Aston rebuffs each of Davies' rationalisations of his past complaints (75–76). The play ends with a "Long silence" as Aston, who "remains still, his back to him [Davies], at the window, apparently unrelenting as he gazes at his garden and makes no response at all to Davies' futile plea, which is sprinkled with many dots (". . .") of elliptical hesitations (77–78).

Analysis of the characters

Aston

When he was younger he was given electric shock therapy that leaves him permanently brain damaged. His efforts to appease the ever-complaining Davies may be seen as an attempt to reach out to others. He desperately seeks a connection in the wrong place and with the wrong people. His main obstacle is his inability to communicate. He is misunderstood by his closest relative, his brother, and thus is completely isolated in his existence. His good-natured attitude makes him vulnerable to exploitation. His dialogue is sparse and often a direct response to something Mick or Davies has said. Aston has dreams of building a shed. The shed to him may represent all the things his life lacks: accomplishment and structure. The shed represents hope for the future.

Davies

Davies manufactures the story of his life, lying or sidestepping some details to avoid telling the whole truth about himself. A non-sequitur. He adjusts aspects of the story of his life according to the people he is trying to impress, influence, or manipulate. As Billington points out, "When Mick suggests that Davies might have been in the services — and even the colonies, Davies retorts: 'I was over there. I was one of the first over there.' He defines himself according to momentary imperatives and other people's suggestions" (122).

Mick

At times violent and ill-tempered, Mick is ambitious. He talks above Davies' ability to comprehend him. His increasing dissatisfaction with Davies leads to a rapprochement with his brother, Aston; though he appears to have distanced himself from Aston prior to the opening of the play, by the end, they exchange a few words and a faint smile. Early in the play, when he first encounters him, Mick attacks Davies, taking him for an intruder in his brother Aston's abode: an attic room of a run-down house which Mick looks after and in which he enables his brother to live. At first, he is aggressive toward Davies. Later, it may be that by suggesting that Davies could be "caretaker" of both his house and his brother, Mick is attempting to shift responsibility from himself onto Davies, who hardly seems a viable candidate for such tasks. The disparities between the loftiness of Mick's "dreams" and needs for immediate results and the mundane realities of Davies's neediness and shifty non-committal nature creates much of the absurdity of the play.

Style

The language and plot of The Caretaker blends Realism with the Theatre of the Absurd

Theatre of the Absurd

. In the Theatre of the Absurd language is used in a manner that heightens the audience's awareness of the language itself, often through repetition and circumventing dialogue.

The play has often been compared to Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...

, by Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

, and other absurdist plays because of its apparent lack of plot and action.

The fluidity of the characters is explained by Ronald Knowles as follows: "Language, character, and being are here aspects of each other made manifest in speech and silence. Character is no longer the clearly perceived entity underlying clarity of articulation the objectification of a social and moral entelechy but something amorphous and contingent (41).

Language

One of the keys to understanding Pinter's language is not to rely on the words a character says but to look for the meaning behind the text. The Caretaker is filled with long rants and non-sequiturs, the language is either choppy dialogue full of interruptions or long speeches that are a vocalized train of thought. Although, the text is presented in a casual way there is always a message behind its simplicity. Pinter is often concerned with "communication itself, or rather the deliberate evasion of communication" (Knowles 43).

The play's staccato language and rhythms are musically balanced through strategically placed pauses. Pinter toys with silence, where it is used in the play and what emphasis it places on the words when they are at last spoken.

Mode of drama: Tragicomedy

The Caretaker is a drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

of mixed modes; both tragic and comic, it is a tragicomedy

Tragicomedy

Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...

. Elements of comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

appear in the monologues of Davies and Mick, and the characters' interactions at times even approach farce

Farce

In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...

. For instance, the first scene of Act Two, which critics have compared to the hat and shoe sequences in Beckett's Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...

, is particularly farcical:

ASTON offers the bag to DAVIES.

MICK grabs it.

ASTON takes it.

MICK grabs it.

DAVIES reaches for it.

ASTON takes it.

MICK reaches for it.

ASTON gives it to DAVIES.

MICK grabs it. Pause. (39)

Davies' confusion, repetitions, and attempts to deceive both brothers and to play each one off against the other are also farcical. Davies has pretended to be someone else and using an assumed name, "Bernard Jenkins". But, in response to separate inquiries by Aston and Mick, it appears that Davies' real name is not really "Bernard Jenkins" but that it is "Mac Davies" (as Pinter designates him "Davies" throughout) and that he is actually Welsh

Welsh people

The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

and not English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

, a fact that he is attempting to conceal throughout the play and that motivates him to "get down to Sidcup

Sidcup

", the past location of a British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

Records Office, to get his identity "papers" (13–16).

The elements of tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

occur in Aston's climactic monologue about his shock treatments in "that place" and at the end of the play, though the ending is still somewhat ambiguous: at the very end, it appears that the brothers are turning Davies, an old homeless man, out of what may be his last chance for shelter, mainly because of his (and their) inabilities to adjust socially to one another, or their respective "anti-social

Psychopathology

Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...

" qualities.

Interpretation

In his 1960 book review of The Caretaker, fellow English playwright John Arden

John Arden

John Arden is an award-winning English playwright from Barnsley . His works tend to expose social issues of personal concern. He is a member of the Royal Society of Literature....

writes: "Taken purely at its face value this play is a study of the unexpected strength of family ties against an intruder." As Arden states, family relationships are one of the main thematic concerns of the play.

Another prevalent theme is the characters' inability to communicate productively with one another. The play depends more on dialogue than on action; however, though there are fleeting moments in which each of them does seem to reach some understanding with the other, more often, they avoid communicating with one another as a result of their own psychological insecurities and self-concerns.

The theme of isolation appears to result from the characters' inability to communicate with one another, and the characters' own insularity seems to exacerbate their difficulty communicating with others.

As the characters also engage in deceiving one another and themselves, deception and self-deception are motifs, and certain deceptive phrases and self-deceptive strategies recur as refrains throughout the dialogue. Davies uses an assumed name and has convinced himself that he is really going to resolve his problems relating to his lack of identity papers, even though he appears too lazy to take any such responsibility for his own actions and blames his inaction on everyone but himself. Aston believes that his dream of building a shed will eventually reach fruition, despite his mental disability. Mick believes that his ambitions for a successful career outweigh his responsibility to care for his mentally-damaged brother. In the end however all three men are deceiving themselves. Their lives may continue on beyond the end of the play just as they are at the beginning and throughout it. The deceit and isolation in the play lead to a world where time, place, identity, and language are ambiguous and fluid.

Premiere

In 27 April 1960, the first production of The Caretaker opened at the Arts Theatre

Arts Theatre

The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It now operates as the West End's smallest commercial receiving house.-History:...

, in London, prior to transferring to the West End

West End of London

The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...

's Duchess Theatre

Duchess Theatre

on 30 May 1960. It starred Donald Pleasence

Donald Pleasence

Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...

as Davies, Alan Bates

Alan Bates

Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving...

as Mick, and Peter Woodthorpe

Peter Woodthorpe

Peter Woodthorpe was an English film, television and voice actor who is best known for supplying the voice of Gollum in the 1978 Bakshi version of The Lord of the Rings and BBC's 1981 radio serial...

as Aston. The productions received generally strong reviews.

Other notable productions and major revivals

[Information about some productions comes from the section on The Caretaker in HaroldPinter.org.]

1962 – Lyceum Theatre, New York City, on 4 October 1962 by Roger L. Stevens, Frederick Brisson, and Gilbert Miller. Directed by Donald McWhinnie. Setting: Bert Currah, Sets Supervised and lighting: Paul Morrison, Production Supervisor: Fred Herbert, Stage Manger: Joel Fabiani

Cast: Alan Bates (Mick), Donald Pleasence (Davies), and Robert Shaw

Robert Shaw (actor)

Robert Archibald Shaw was an English actor and novelist, remembered for his performances in The Sting , From Russia with Love , A Man for All Seasons , the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three , Black Sunday , The Deep and Jaws , where he played the shark hunter Quint.-Early life...

(Aston).

1981 – Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

. Directed by Kenneth Ives
Kenneth Ives
Kenneth Ives is a British actor turned director with a number of 1960s and 1970s television credits.As an actor he appeared in the 1968 film version of The Lion in Winter, the 1970 BBC serial Last of the Mohicans as Hawkeye, and had roles in Adam Adamant Lives! and as one of the eponymous villains...

.

Cast: Jonathan Pryce

Jonathan Pryce

Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...

, Kenneth Cranham

Kenneth Cranham

Kenneth Cranham is a film, television and stage actor. He starred in the title role in the popular 1980s comedy drama Shine on Harvey Moon. He also appeared in Layer Cake, Gangster No. 1, Rome, Oliver! and many other films. He is probably best known to horror genre fans as the deranged Dr...

, and Warren Mitchell

Warren Mitchell

Warren Mitchell is an English actor who rose to initial prominence in the role of bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in the BBC television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part , and its sequels Till Death... and In Sickness and in Health , all of which were written by Johnny Speight...

1990 – Sherman Theatre, Cardiff 24 October–10 November

Cast: Miriam Karlin

Miriam Karlin

Miriam Karlin, OBE was a British actress who worked on screen for over 60 years. She was best known for her role as Paddy in The Rag Trade, a 1960s BBC and 1970s LWT sitcom , especially for her catchphrase "Everybody out!"...

played Davies – the first time a woman performed the title role – with Mark Lewis Jones

Mark Lewis Jones

Mark Lewis Jones is a Welsh actor, whose roles include that of a police inspector in BBC drama series, 55 Degrees North, a whaler in the movie, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Tecton, a soldier in Troy....

(Aston) and Gary Lilburn (Mick). Directed by Annie Castledine

Annie Castledine

Annie Castledine is a theatre director.Her work has included periods with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic. She has been Artistic Director at Theatr Clywd, Mold and at the Derby Playhouse ....

1991 – Comedy Theatre, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. Directed by Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...

.

Cast: Donald Pleasence

Donald Pleasence

Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...

, Peter Howitt

Peter Howitt

Peter Howitt is an English actor and film director. He grew up in Eltham, London and Bromley, Kent, Peter used to be a part of the Priory Players in the Priory behind Christ Church, Eltham. He studied at the Drama Studio London. He has two children, Luke and Amy...

and Colin Firth

Colin Firth

SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...

1993 – The Studio Theatre, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

12 September–24 October 1993

Cast: Emery Battis, Richard Thompson, John Tindle.

2000 – Comedy Theatre, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, November 2000 – February 2001. Directed by Patrick Marber
Patrick Marber
Patrick Albert Crispin Marber is an English comedian, playwright, director, puppeteer, actor and screenwriter.-Early life and education:...

. Designer, Rob Howell; lighting, Hugh Vanstone; sound, Simon Baker (for Autograph Sound). Associate Director, Gari Jones

Cast: Michael Gambon

Michael Gambon

Sir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...

(Davies), Rupert Graves

Rupert Graves

Rupert Graves is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as DI Lestrade in the critically acclaimed television series Sherlock.-Early life:...

(Mick), and Douglas Hodge

Douglas Hodge

Douglas Hodge is an English actor, director, and musician who trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.Hodge is a council member of the National Youth Theatre for whom, in 1989, he co-wrote Pacha Mama's Blessing about the Amazon rain forests staged at the Almeida...

(Aston)

2003 – Roundabout Theatre Company, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Directed by David Jones
David Jones (director)
David Hugh Jones was a British stage, television, and film director.-Personal history:Jones was born in Poole, Dorset, the son of John David Jones and his wife Gwendolen Agnes Langworthy...

. Set design: John Beatty, Costume design: Jane Greenwood, Lighting: Peter Lezorowski. Design: Scott Lehrer.

Cast: Patrick Stewart

Patrick Stewart

Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...

(Davies), Aidan Gillen

Aidan Gillen

Aidan Gillen is an Irish stage and screen actor and television presenter. He is known in Ireland for his role in Love/Hate, in the UK for his role in Queer as Folk and in the US for his role in HBO's television series The Wire in which he plays Tommy Carcetti and for his role in Game of Thrones as...

(Mick), and Kyle MacLachlan

Kyle MacLachlan

Kyle Merritt MacLachlan is an American actor. MacLachlan is best known for his roles in cult films Blue Velvet as Jeffrey Beaumont, Showgirls as Zack Carey, as Paul Atreides in Dune, and Ray Manzarek in the Oliver Stone film The Doors...

(Aston).

2005 - Zephyr Theatre. Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. Directed by Matt Gottlieb.

Cast Robert Mandan

Robert Mandan

Robert Mandan is an American actor, most famous for his portrayals of playwright David Allen on the NBC serial From These Roots from 1958–1961, businessman Sam Reynolds on the serial Search for Tomorrow from 1965 to 1970, and his subsequent satire of the genre playing Chester Tate on the sitcom...

(Davies), Steve Spiro

Steve Spiro

Steve Spiro is a British musician. He started his musical career as a record producer and remixer, working with artists including the Pet Shop Boys, Talk Talk, The Farm and Imagination...

(Mick) and Jaxon Duff Gwillim (Aston).

2006 – Sheffield Theatres
Sheffield Theatres
Sheffield Theatres is a theatre complex in Sheffield, South Yorkshire comprising three theatres: the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Crucible Studio...

, part of UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

tour in 2006–2007 season. Directed by Jamie Lloyd
Jamie Lloyd
Jamie Lloyd is a fictional character in the Halloween film series, serving as the series protagonist in Halloween 4 and 5. The character also makes a brief appearance in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers....

.

Cast Nigel Harman

Nigel Harman

Nigel Derek Harman is an English actor, most famous for his role as Dennis Rickman in the UK soap opera EastEnders. He has worked extensively in theatre, with the stage being described as his "first love"...

, David Bradley

David Bradley (actor)

David Bradley is an English character actor. He has recently become known for playing the caretaker of Hogwarts, Argus Filch, in the Harry Potter film franchise.-Life and career :...

, and Con O'Neill

Con O'Neill (actor)

Robert "Con" O'Neill is a British actor. He began his acting career at Liverpool's Everyman Youth Theatre....

2006–2007 – "Le gardien". Théâtre de l'Oeuvre. Transferred to the Théâtre de Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. Directed by Didier Long.

Cast: Robert Hirsch

Robert Hirsch (actor)

Robert Paul Hirsch is a French actor. He has been a sociétaire of the Comédie-Française since 1952. In 1990 he won César Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in Hiver 54, l'abbé Pierre...

, Samuel Labarthe and Cyrille Thouvenin.

2007 – The English Theatre of Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

. Directed by Clifford Dean.

Cast: Hayward Morse

Hayward Morse

Hayward Morse is a British stage and voice actor. His career began on CBC television and with numerous stage performances in Canada and the United States. He made his USA television debut in 1959 with Ingrid Bergman in the critically acclaimed film The Turn of the Screw...

, Steven Lello, and Scott Smith.

2008 – Guthrie Theater
Guthrie Theater
The Guthrie Theater is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the result of the desire of Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Oliver Rea, and Peter Zeisler to create a resident acting company that would produce and perform the classics in...

, Minneapolis. Directed by Benjamin McGovern.

Cast: Stephen Cartmell, Steven Epp, and Kris L. Nelson.

2009 – Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. Directed by Christopher Morahan.

Cast: Jonathan Pryce as Davies, Peter McDonald as Aston and playing Tom Brooke as Mick.

2010 - London Classic Theatre (touring production). Directed by Michael Cabot.

Cast: Nicholas Gadd, Nicholas Gasson, and Richard Stemp.

Film adaptation

Elizabeth Taylor

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

Productions Inc., was released in movie theatres in 1964. Based on Pinter's unpublished screenplay, it was directed by Clive Donner

Clive Donner

Clive Stanley Donner was a British film director who was a defining part of the British New Wave, directing films such as The Caretaker, Nothing But the Best, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush and What's New Pussycat?...

and starred Alan Bates

Alan Bates

as Mick, Donald Pleasence

Donald Pleasence

Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...

as Davies, and Robert Shaw

Robert Shaw (actor)

as Aston. In collaboration with the British Film Institute

British Film Institute

The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...

, it has been released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

(DVD-9 vidéo) by Doriane Films (Paris), in the original English version, with both English and French subtitles.

Place of the play in educational curricula

The Caretaker is widely studied in schools in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

for GCSE and A-Levels English

English studies

English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...

, sometimes as Drama

Drama

Coursework

Coursework is the name for work carried out by students at university or middle/high school that contributes towards their overall grade, but which is assessed separately from their final exams. Coursework can, for example, take the form of experimental work, or may involve research in the...

, in United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, at both high-school and college and university levels, and worldwide. It is studied at many schools as part of the International Baccalaureate curriculum. It is among Pinter's most frequently-studied and most frequently-reprinted works (WorldCat

WorldCat

WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...

Works cited

Arden, John

John Arden

John Arden is an award-winning English playwright from Barnsley . His works tend to expose social issues of personal concern. He is a member of the Royal Society of Literature....

. Book review of The Caretaker, by Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter

. New Theatre Mag. 1.4 (July 1960): 29–30.

Billington, Michael

Michael Billington (critic)

. Harold Pinter. 1996. London: Faber and Faber

Faber and Faber

Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...

, 2007. ISBN 9780571234769 (13). Updated 2nd ed. of The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. 1996. London: Faber and Faber, 1997. ISBN 0571171036 (10). Print.

Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd
Theatre of the Absurd
The Theatre of the Absurd is a designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction, written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre which has evolved from their work...

. 1961. 3rd ed. New York: Vintage Books

Vintage Books

Vintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...

, 2004. ISBN 1400075238 (10). ISBN 9781400075232 (13). Print.

Hickling, Alfred. "The Caretaker: Octagon, Bolton". Guardian
Guardian.co.uk
guardian.co.uk, formerly known as Guardian Unlimited, is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group. Georgina Henry is the editor...

. Guardian Media Group

Guardian Media Group

Guardian Media Group plc is a company of the United Kingdom owning various mass media operations including The Guardian and The Observer. The Group is owned by the Scott Trust. It was founded as the Manchester Guardian Ltd in 1907 when C. P. Scott bought the Manchester Guardian from the estate of...

, 13 Mar. 2009. Web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

. 28 May 2009. (Rev. of production directed by Mark Babych.)

Jones, David

David Jones (director)

David Hugh Jones was a British stage, television, and film director.-Personal history:Jones was born in Poole, Dorset, the son of John David Jones and his wife Gwendolen Agnes Langworthy...

. "Travels with Harold". Front & Center Online. Roundabout Theatre Company, Fall 2003. Web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

. 12 Mar. 2009. ("Online version of the Roundabout Theatre Company's subscriber magazine.")

Knowles, Roland. The Birthday Party and The Caretaker: Text and Performance. London: Macmillan Education

Macmillan Publishers

Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...

, 1988. 41–43. Print.

Naismith, Bill. Harold Pinter. Faber Critical Guides. London: Faber and Faber

Faber and Faber

, 2000. ISBN 0571197817. Print.

Pinter, Harold

Harold Pinter

. The Caretaker: A Play in Three Acts. London: Encore Publishing

Encore Theatre Magazine

Co., 1960. OCLC 10322991. Print.

–––. The Caretaker and The Dumb Waiter: Two Plays by Harold Pinter 1960. New York: Grove Press

Grove Press

Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its...

, 1988. ISBN 080215087X (10). ISBN 9780802150875 (13). Print.

Powlick, Leonard. " 'What the hell is that all about?' A Peek at Pinter's Dramaturgy." Harold Pinter: Critical Approaches. Ed. Steven H. Gale. Cranbury, NJ: Associated UP

Associated University Presses

Associated University Presses is a publishing company based in the United States, formed and operated as a consortium of several American university presses. AUP was first established and incorporated in 1966, with the first titles bearing the AUP imprint appearing from 1968...

, 1986. 30–37. Print.

Richardson, Brian. Performance review of The Caretaker, Studio Theatre (Washington D.C.), 12 Sept. 1993. The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1994. Ed. Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 1994. 109–10. Print.

Scott, Michael, ed. Harold Pinter: The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming: A Case Book. London: Macmillan Education

Macmillan Publishers

, 1986. Print.

External links

"The Caretaker" – From the "Plays" section of HaroldPinter.org: The Official Website of the International Playwright Harold Pinter (Includes details of productions and excerpts from reviews.)
"The Caretaker Summary / Study Guide" – Synopsis and analysis at eNotes.com.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Origins and contexts of the play

Characters

Synopsis

Act I

Act II

Act III

Analysis of the characters

Style

Language

Mode of drama: Tragicomedy

Interpretation

Premiere

Other notable productions and major revivals

Film adaptation

Place of the play in educational curricula

Works cited

Further reading

External links