This production of The Caretaker by Harold Pinter demonstrates how vital theatre is for reflecting our world back to us, to hold a mirror up to nature (our nature as humans in particular) and to sit alongside it, to witness it and let that world speak to us.
The play (and the production) asks many more questions than it answers, which makes it a far more powerful force directly within us.
For me, it was impossible to watch and listen to the angry and violent ramblings of Davies (The Caretaker, played with extraordinary, mercurial volatility and childlike vulnerability by Ian McDiarmid) about immigration without an immediate awareness of the fire of such sentiments being stoked by ‘politicians’ in our world today.
It was also impossible not to feel compassion for all three of the characters, lost and suffering in their own particular ways.
There were moments that I found laugh out loud funny (actual laughter, not just lol’ing in text speak in my mind), in particular with Pinter’s expert observations of social awkwardness. The moment we found ourselves laughing at the manipulative, almost pathetic antics of Davies, the maniacal, psychopathic tendencies of Mick (startling, intimidating and compelling from Jack Riddiford) or the astonished bemusement from Aston (a truly heartbreaking portrayal from Adam Gillen), the sheer awfulness of each character’s personal hell was upon us as much as it was rattling about inside the the decaying room – the 4th character in a fantastically grim set, created by Stephen Brimson Lewis.
The ultimate custodian here is Artistic Director Justin Audibert, who has managed to present Pinter’s timely classic with delicate care and yet bold and brutal honesty. In the days since I saw the production, the despair and hopelessness of those 3 characters, trapped in that squalid room and more importantly, in their own perceptions of the world has lingered with the haunting sense of a warning: we become disconnected from our humanity at our own peril.
Thankfully, Chichester Festival Theatre and the power that live theatre has to re-connect us to what really matters is in safe hands.
Highly recommended.