Riveting ‘Caretaker’ gets expert treatment

THEATER REVIEW | Pinter masterpiece is a joy to experience

March 5, 2008

BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

It begins in the half-dark, with the benign yet oddly ominous sound of water dripping from a leaky ceiling. A door slams shut. There are voices in the hallway and footsteps on a staircase. This is no luxury hotel, to be sure. Not by a long shot.

In fact, we are in the gloomy, junk-stuffed attic of a decrepit building in a polyglot neighborhood of London, circa 1960. We also happen to be in the darkest corners of playwright Harold Pinter’s dramatic imagination, and that is quite a marvelous space to inhabit: Sinister and deceitful, violent and poetic, laughably mundane and extravagantly ambiguous. It is a space that truly wreaks with the stench of humanity — and man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. And to enter this world by way of Pinter’s early masterpiece, “The Caretaker,” is to be completely hooked, particularly if you find a production as altogether brilliant as the one now at Mary-Arrchie Theatre.

The theater itself — in a grimy old walkup loft — could easily serve as the backdrop for this play, though John Wilson’s fabulously atmospheric set (spookily lit by Matthew Gawryk) ratchets things up, as do Joe Court’s sound effects. But it is the combination of Pinter’s uncanny writing, the clockwork direction of Hans Fleischmann and the priceless performances by the show’s three precision-tuned actors — Todd Lahrman, Richard Cotovsky and Dan Kuhlman — that make this production so completely riveting. The actors act the stuffings out of their roles. They should not be missed.

The room in question is lived in by Aston (Lahrman), a painfully introverted and lonely man forever at work on some project. On this particular night he has rescued Davies (Cotovsky), a dissembling, self-important, bigoted vagrant who was about to be beaten up. Of course no good deed goes unpunished. And the more Aston, a strange but compassionate and unselfish fellow, offers to help Davies (a bed, a pair of shoes, a bit of money), the more he is met with a certain arrogance, greed, ungratefulness and sense of entitlement.

Enter Mick (Kuhlman), Aston’s younger brother — a gentlemanly thug of sorts. A man with an entrepreneurial spirit and a keen sense of how the world works, he is the owner of the building, and knows just what Davies is up to, so he proceeds to play some serious (and often quite hilarious) mind games with him.

The ever-shifting dynamics among the three men are expertly rendered and full of surprises. And along the way we learn something about each of them: Aston’s terrible encounter with electroshock, Mick’s fantastical dreams of interior decoration and Davies’ uncanny ability to move with the prevailing winds, putting self-preservation above all else.

The current Broadway revival of Pinter’s “The Homecoming” has received raves, but I can’t imagine it is any better than this “Caretaker.”

Source: http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/weiss/825590,CST-FTR-Care05.article

PINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT Cotovsky, left, pauses for Kuhlman.

One criterion in evaluating playwrights is parsing the vagueness. Is a play’s indeterminate meaning a strength rather than a weakness? The tragicomic quandary of Chekhov and Beckett, the works of dramatists from Shakespeare to Shaw all survive because they pass a test of flexibility; how many readings the plays can plausibly sustain have always been a hallmark of greatness. And, of course, we can now add the ambiguities of Pinter. Though I’m inclined to favor the hardcore dread-and-menace take on The Caretaker, the Godot-ian character of the piece is no accident. With this work, potentially a semifarce surrounding a gritty ache, emphasizing the marooned comedy can make the play’s empty heart that much emptier, a tiny battle for simple survival. Director Fleischmann has bravely taken the less-traveled route to existential dismay.

John Malkovich tried this approach in 1986, but the Steppenwolf kids were already too big for these play-it-down britches, and New York wasn’t impressed. But then, he wasn’t armed with Cotovsky, the walking legend of Chicago storefront who’s the physical embodiment of down-and-out Davies, a vagrant taken in by a weird pair of codependent brothers. Just watching him carry a full-length play is a treat, but Cotovsky is masterful, evoking a hapless, hilarious Fagin. Lahrman is most moving as the damaged, depressive end of the bipolar brothers, and as his manic, proto-condo-flipping counterpart, Kuhlman personifies slick impotence. If this lacks a certain edge, it still more than lives up to to its contrarian nature, ending with not even a whimper, but a small laugh.
— Brian Nemtusak

Source: http://www.timeout.com/chicago/articles/theater/27066/the-caretaker

Classic Pinter play marvelously produced by Mary-Arrchie Theatre

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. loves to mount gritty, raw and naturalistic theatre to critical acclaim over the years. Their latest achievement is a terrific production of Harold Pinter’s 1959 classic, The Caretaker. Pinter would thoroughly appreciate Director Hans Fleischmann’s mounting. From the 20 second opening silence scene to the rich language of ambiguity, Pinter’s unique take on absurd theatre is a troublingly engaging piece of theatre. Pinter’s first major hit play is flawlessly performed by three excellent actors; Richard Cotovsky (Davies), Todd Lahrman (Aston) and Dan Kuhlman (Mick).

The press notes state: “Aston, a quiet, reserved man, lives alone in a tiny, cluttered apartment in a poor London district. He befriends and takes in Mac Davies, an old derelict who has been fired from a menial job in a cafe. In time Aston offers him a job as caretaker of the house. Aston’s brother, Mick - a taunting, quasi-sadist - harasses the derelict when his brother is away, countermanding his orders. Pinter uses elements of both comedy and tragedy. The complexity of the play, Pinter’s masterful use of dialogue, and the depth and perception shown in Pinter’s themes all contribute to The Caretaker’s consideration as a modern masterpiece.”

The Caretaker deals with failed communications and unfolds as a power struggle between Davies and Aston and Davies and Mick. Pinter’s language is filled with over 100 silent pauses and several repetitions of a single phrase, mostly by Davies. These signature Pinter techniques are performed to perfection by Rich Cotovsky, Dan Kuhlman and Todd Lahrman. I can’t remember a fine three-hander as each player deftly lands the unique nuances of these lost, lonely souls. John Wilson’s junk filled set on Matthew Gawryk’s eerie light complete the apt production values. If you have never seen The Caretaker or a Pinter play—then you need to get to Angel Island to experience a great playwright in a near perfect production.

Highly Recommended

Tom Williams

‘The Caretaker’ has been Jeff Recommended*

*The designation of “Jeff Recommended” is given to a production when at least ONE ELEMENT of the show was deemed outstanding by the opening night judges of The Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee. The entire production is then eligible for nomination for awards at the end of the season.

www.jeffawards.org

The Caretaker
Critical Evaluation: *** out of ****

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company’s new production of Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter’s “The Caretaker” is a solid piece of work. There is nothing innovative about the production; director Hans Fleischmann and his able cast are completely loyal to Pinter’s script about a quiet, mentally challenged man (Todd Lahrman), a down-and-out derelict (Richard Cotovsky) whom the man befriends by bringing him to live in his cluttered and depressing flat, and the man’s sadistic younger brother (Dan Kuhlman). Like virtually all Pinter plays, the action lies in the tension created more by what is not said than the actual dialogue of the play. Pinter is always about power relations and the underlying aggression in human interaction as his characters jockey for power over each other. It is a keenly observant, but unnervingly bleak view of humanity and one which requires the utmost in timing on the part of the actors.

To their credit, this cast under Fleischmann’s direction has mostly found their way with the timing and even managed enough humor to keep the depressing nature of the play from dragging the evening down. Cotovsky, especially, brings warmth to the derelict Davies that is far from automatic in Pinter’s frequently austere characters. As Davies weaves his tales about getting his papers from Sidcup and getting his life together, there is just enough humanity to have the audience pulling for him - at least some of the time - while knowing full well that he can never get anything together. His lack of gratitude for the things that Aston does for him and the way he attempts to usurp Aston’s place in the apartment are grotesque, but like Aston, we forgive him most of the time.

Lahrman’s light touch preserves Aston’s position as the most sympathetic character of the lot. His anger only occasionally bubbles up, but it’s effective when it does and this saves Aston from being pathetic. Younger brother Mick is the most aggressive of the characters and Kuhlman is thorough in his control and humiliation of the other two. These three are more literal than many Pinter characters, but there is still a surreal feel to them. Cotovsky, Lahrman and Kuhlman manage to make them human through a strong, if not perfectly seamless, ensemble effort.

The small upstairs space at Angel Island is perfect for presenting “The Caretaker”. John Wilson’s dormer-windowed flat looks like a natural part of the walk-up theatre’s attic. The audience is so up-close that it is necessary to step over part of the clutter to get to some of the seats. This was my first visit to the space and the set appeared so natural that I had to pause to make certain that we weren’t just being ushered into the theatre’s grimy workshop.

The other technical aspects of the show are also effective; the lighting convincingly portrays the passing of day to night to morning again and little sounds punctuate the feel of the creepy flat. There is no real ending or meaning to this work, only the experience of being there for a while with some too real members of the human race. The space adds to that sensation. “The Caretaker” is a definitive Pinter play and Mary-Arrchie’s presentation is a tight production. If you are a Pinter fan, this show will satisfy; however, it is unlikely to win over Pinter critics or bring Pinter novices into the fold.

“The Caretaker” is at Angel Island and runs Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 7:00 p.m. through April 12 2008. Tickets are $18-$22 and may be purchased by calling 773-871-0442. Angel Island is located at 735 W. Sheridan Rd. in Chicago. For more information, visit www.maryarrchie.com.

reviewed by Randy Hardwick