Pinter's The Caretaker (Radio 4 Saturday Play)

[Guest]

Those of you who know me from the R3 board might remember I'm a bit of a Pinter fan. (Not everyone's cup of tea, I realise, but...)

Anyway, there's a new production of The Caretaker, and ironically for this place (as if to rub salt in the wound), it's on Radio 4 - the Saturday Play, 27 November. It's a 90-minuter, and directed by Peter Kavanagh, so bodes well I hope.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w6lqz

Russ

[french frank]

The policy of having longer plays was introduced with Mark Damazer. I wonder if this was his commission or whether the policy of broadcasting long-form plays is continuing on R4? I do hope it isn't a prelude to removing drama from Radio 3 and turning it into a 'music station'. The spoken arts and features would be the losers because Radio 4 wouldn't make room for everything on Radio 3. Unless Radio 7/4Extra started widening its current output.

[Stanley Stewart]

I'm eager to hear Saturday's broadcast (27 Nov, R4, 14.30-16.00 hrs) as, although I've seen frequent productions, I still recall the impact of the orginal production when "The Caretaker" was staged at the intimate Arts Theatre (near Leicester Square) before it transferred to the Duchess Theatre for a long run in May 1960.

The mid-50s certainly indicated the winds of change at the Royal Court Theatre (Sloane Square) and Beckett's, "Waiting for Godot" transferred to the Criterion Theatre (again, from the enterprising Arts Theatre) but 1960 was also important as a harbinger of a renaissance of the arts, as a London base was mooted for the RSC at the Aldwych Theatre - only a short distance from the Duchess Theatre where "The Caretaker" was flourishing and rumours were rife that the building of the National Theatre would get the go-ahead but the company would be based at the Old Vic in the interim. They arrived there in 1962 but didn't occupy a permanent home on the South Bank until 1976!

Pinter's "The Birthday Party" had been a disastrous flop at the Lyric, Hammersmith, in 1958, so "The Caretaker" was initially staged at the Arts Theatre with a minimal budget and a cast of three. And what a cast: Donald Pleasence (Davies/Jenkins) with Peter Woodthorpe (the original London Estragon in "Godot" as Aston) and Alan Bates (Aston's brother, Mick). The two brothers communicate more by looks with each other than by dialogue which makes me wonder how this will register on radio - the production was directed by Donald McWhinnie, one of the great radio drama director's, and he was also fully alive to its verbal felicities and it has to be remembered that this was an era when declamation in the theatre was coming to an end as the appearance of naturalism helped the sense of rhythmic balance in the writing.

A film version of the West End production was also made with Pleasence and Bates but Robert Shaw substituted for Woodthorpe as Aston. A low budget production, filmed in a disused house at Hackney and the budget was really made by subscriptions from theatre 'names' including Noel Coward - a huge admirer of Pinter's writing. The film version was last seen on Pinter at the BBC, Oct/Nov, 2002, in a season which also included "The Homecoming", "Old Times", "The Birthday Party", "The Room", "The Dwarfs" "The Lover" "The Basement", "The Collection" and Pinter's most recent play, "Celebration" with Lindsay Duncan and Keith Allen. Initially, I recorded the series on off-air video which I've subsequently transferred to DVD with improved sound and vision.

[Stanley Stewart]

Today's broadcast reminded me of a time when actors used to coast through performances, matinees in particular. "The Caretaker" depends on a high energy quotient from Davies, the intruder, - David Warner a bit gentlemanly, I thought - and, unless we get the aggressive rages in this performance, we miss the almost passive contrast in Aston. His stillness at the end of Act 2 when he quietly talks about the barbaric use of ECT inflicted on him is also emphasised by an instant blackout in the lighting at this moment. A terryifying moment in the theatre. Similarly, the closing moments of the play are sacrificed when the conniving Davies is confronted by a look of mutual understanding between the two brothers, although I thought it was quite clever to fade the action and bring-up the sound of pouring rain as Davies takes to the street again. I could instance other moments when the nuances were lost but the play kept my attention and I laughed out loud on several occasions. All heard in the comfort of home as heavy snow fell outside.

Off-thread but "Alan Bennett and the Habit of Art" starts at 19.55 hrs on More 4; (Sat, 27 Nov) this documentary on the making of the play also has footage of WH Auden.

[Russ]

Interesting, Stanley. I found the contrast between Davies and Anton perfectly ok, and perhaps this is an instance where the intimacy of the radio medium doesn't need the 'histrionics' of the stage. I did find the ending a bit weird though (although I couldn't detect the rain you mention through my not-very-good speakers), and this probably was an instance of stage body language being lost. (Pinter's stage directions are very minimal.)

And yes, there were some good laughs ("Those bastards in the monastery let me down again.") and very funny passages (Mick's fantasy interior-decorating plans), and of course, Davies' repeated references to his touchstone nirvana of Sidcup.

I enjoyed it immensely.

Russ