Director’s Note: Iain Sinclair, THE CARETAKER
Aston: Where were you born then?
Davies: (Darkly) What do you mean?
Max Stafford Clark who ran The Royal Court Theatre in UK taught me the most important lesson I have ever learned in directing and he used the above two lines from THE CARETAKER to do so.
You can feel the potential brimming out of these two short lines. The universe of experience between them. Trauma in the past, danger in the future and the unbearable moment between the two. Also, lurking in the wide gap between Pinter’s text and subtext is a joke wrapped in an unmistakable sense of threat, most particularly the threat of being tagged with an identity.
It’s the director’s job to help actors best implement a playwright’s dramatic code and Harold Pinter’s is the best. We have followed it to the letter. It has been a lifelong dream to work on this particular play with actors of the calibre of Darren, Anthony and Henry … and Harold. I’ll leave the interpretation to you.
Besides, what would I know? I am just a…
Pause
Long silence.
Iain Sinclair
Playing 14 Oct – 19 Nov, don’t miss this explosive theatrical event by Harold Pinter.