THE CARETAKER
Harold Pinter
Friday 23rd March 2012
Im going to start by saying I'm a massive fan of the work of Harold Pinter. I was introduced to his work in year 10 on an excursion with our drama class to see The Birthday Party. It was and still is, my favourite play to date. I remember clearly reenacting a scene from The Birthday Party with my drama freak friends infront of our class. It was intense. I dont mean to brag but we left the class speechless and I think a little scared of us. It's the highlight of my acting career, probably not for Lauren and Casey though, who went onto study acting at respectable acting schools (just quietly, they are both amazing actors and you should keep and close eye on the two of them. But thats another post altogether!).
Then in year 12 we studied The Caretaker and enjoyed it a little too much...
My friends, Casey and Phil, and I enjoyed studying the text so much that we made a recording of the play for our English teacher as a retirement gift, with ourselves in the starring roles.
Yeah, we were the cool kids in the class.
At times I had no idea what was going on in the play and found myself yelling
"maybe it dosent mean anything! maybe there is a Buddha on the stove just because!!!"
*I will never know or understand why that Buddha was there...
Nevertheless it was a great play to study and became a great source of inside jokes between Phil and Casey and myself that will forever ingrained into my mind.
SIDCUP!
So Casey, Phil and I jumped at the chance to see The Caretaker at the Adelaide Festival to see if West End powerhouse Jonathan Pryce could do a better job of playing Davies than Phil could in our poor quality recording.
And wow, could he ever!
After I got over having a giggle after it dawning on me that Pryce played Governor Swan in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I was able to enjoy the powerful performance of not only Pryce but also Alan Cox and Alex Hassell, Aston and Mick respectively.
After only reading the play and having no visual and only our own voices to interpret the text it was interesting to see how the characters would come to life and if they would be anything like we had imagined.
The character of Aston was completely different to what I had envisaged in my mind. He was dressed a lot more dapper than I expected and he carried himself a little too confidently I thought for the character who had supposedly been in and institution. It was a little weird to see him so different after we had constructed such strong characters in our own minds back in high school. It goes to show how a text like The Caretaker can be interpreted in so many different ways.
Jonathan Pryce was of course fantastic, his annoying tramp Davies was perfect. Just the right amount of annoying and vulnerable. You just wanted him to get his shoes so he could just get out and get his papers!!
Even though you sometimes didn't really know what was going on, as is the nature of Pinter's work, I really enjoyed seeing a text I was so familiar with come to life. Even though I will never quite understand the importance of the Buddha or who in fact was in charge of the place (Aston or Mick?) the play was still compelling and powerful with plenty of tension and hints of comedy that left you shocked, anxious, amused, confused, annoyed, sad and happy all at once and always wanting more. Wanting to ask,
"What's your name!!?"
So now if you excuse me I must get back to fixing that electric plug.
I love this post! Twas a awesome play!
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