Theatre: No time to pause for Pinter revival

Published on Friday 25 June 2010 13:10

PAUSES, not comedy, are what Harold Pinter is notorious for, but as the London Classic Theatre Company bring their revival of Pinter's The Caretaker to the Brunton Theatre for their 10th anniversary tour, comedy is exactly what artistic director Michael Cabot says drives the play.

"Pinter called it a comedy and I'd call it a comedy, too," promises Cabot. "Pinter's language, the way he writes, is very engaging and The Caretaker is a very funny play.

"A lot of people coming to watch a Pinter play think they are in for something terribly serious – with all the pauses and the menace and all that kind of stuff, but at the end of day it is actually very funny and very accessible. Because he is such a good writer, you are drawn straight into the world and the characters make sense. The detail, the various levels at which they work, all makes perfect sense and I think people engage with it."

Cabot should know. The company's original production marked its first big step up the scale as it moved from small to medium-scale touring – helping put it on the map. Not that it was all Pinter's doing. Just as it approached its fifth birthday, the company felt it was ready to take on the challenge.

"The first time around, The Caretaker felt like a real benchmark for the company," Cabot explains. "It was the first time that we really went into something with all guns blazing. We had a cast who we had worked with before, and they had worked with each other, so there was a very strong trio. Our designer came to us with a really strong vision and everything fitted into place. It was one of those productions where everything seemed to click."

You don't call yourself the London Classic Theatre company and then start worrying about having to justify staging the work of Harold Pinter, so Cabot's reasons for staging the play in the first place are very straightforward.

"He is one of my favourite playwrights," he reveals. "For any company saying that they produce modern classic theatre to ignore Pinter would be a cardinal sin. For me he is the strongest dramatic voice of the 20th century. Even waiting as long as we did before we staged it the first time, it was overdue."

Second time around, and Cabot has been able to go into the play with a sharper focus, while putting it on a bigger stage. Most of the original production team and cast might be reunited, but he says while the play has the same structure and skeleton, it is a bigger, bolder piece of theatre.

"We all came back wanting to challenge ourselves and do something better, to find out something more about the play," he remembers. "We went into it with the confidence that we knew that what we had done before had worked, it had gone down very well.

"Pinter's plays explore fairly dark waters at times and at times the longer speeches are fairly flashy. The writing is incredibly descriptive, incredibly imaginative. You never quite know whether the characters are telling the truth or not, which isn't entirely helpful."

It's not that the characters are simply lying, but that there isn't always a clear distinction between what is real and what isn't. There is a difference between blatantly lying and a character who thinks that things might have been the way that they describe them.

"This time we tried to make sure that we understood the rational behind every single line."

If comedy lies at the heart of The Caretaker, it is a pretty bleak shell which surrounds it. This is, as Cabot says, comedy with edge. But what attracts him to a play are strong characters and complex relationships. The company might have staged sweet family dramas such as Hugh Leonard's Love In The Title, but there has been a darkness to most of Cabot's choices. Whether it was the company's first production, David Mamet's Oleanna, or the recent Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh which toured to the Brunton last year.

"A lot of the plays we do are about dysfunctional families," ponders Cabot. "And this one is a play about two brothers, one of whom lives in a dilapidated attic room in a house in London, the other of whom owns the house but doesn't appear to live there all the time."

The older brother, Aston, brings home a tramp character called Davies and gives him a place to live. As Aston gradually builds Davies up, so Davies begins to take over and dominate, until the younger Mick, the landlord, turns up.

"It is a very simple piece," says Cabot. "It has one setting with just the three characters in the room who are only on stage all together very briefly, but a lot of Pinter is about delving beneath its surface.

"It is about the way the two brothers talk to Davies, the way they play with him. It is almost as if they bring him in as a pet, to amuse themselves. One of the lines we talked about in rehearsals is why they keep him there and whether they do this a lot. Do they bring people home for their amusement so they can taunt them, bully them, torture them and distress them and all the rest of it?"

Dark stuff, indeed. Absorbingly dark comedy which draws you in, pauses and all. As Cabot says, "not a lot happens, but the way it happens is very engaging".

The Caretaker, Brunton Theatre, Ladywell Way, Musselburgh, tonight and tomorrow, 7:30pm, 10.50, 0131-665 2240

ALSO PLAYING: FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY

THE BON JOVI EXPERIENCE

THE only Bon Jovi tribute act in the world to have played and shared a stage with the legendary American rock star Jon Bon Jovi perform at Musselburgh's Brunton Theatre next Thursday.

The Bon Jovi Experience is fronted by singer Tony Pearce, right, who has been performing Bon Jovi's hits for more than 15 years.

In 2006, the band was invited by Jon Bon Jovi to perform live at London's Hard Rock Caf to celebrate Bon Jovi's induction into the UK Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame – during the performance Jon Bon Jovi joined his tribute double to sing Who Says You Can't Go Home.

Following this performance, Pearce was invited to promote the Bon Jovi and Kenneth Cole fragrance RSVP, and the band has performed worldwide, causing Nickelback's Chad Kroeger to describe Pearce as "quite simply a mirror image of the man himself," adding that "you could almost be fooled into thinking this band was the real thing".

Recreating Bon Jovi live in concert, the Experience will perform the band's greatest hits including Livin' On A Prayer, Keep The Faith, Bad Medicine and You Give Love a Bad Name.

Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Thursday, 7:30pm, 14.50, 0131-665 2240

THE THREE MEDIUMS

NOT one, not two, but three of the world's best mediums – Colin Fry, Derek Acorah and TJ Higgs – come together at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Monday, for an evening of clairvoyance that they claim you will never forget. So, if you've "lost a loved one" or are "simply intrigued to see if these mediums can provide evidence from the other side," don't miss it. But, remember, there are no guarantees or certain results.

Edinburgh Playhouse, Greenside Place, Monday, 7:30pm, 25, 0844-847 1661

ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN

Gary Mullen, the winner of 2000 Stars In Their Eyes series, brings his tribute to Freddie Mercury and Queen back to the Edinburgh Playhouse on Wednesday. Backed by his band The Works, the former computer operator from Stepps is now Freddie full time and this time is joined by artists who perform as Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor.

Edinburgh Playhouse, Greenside Place, Wednesday, 7:30pm, 19.50, 0844-847 1661

Liam Rudden: Audience participation at Rocky Horror? It's behind them. Oh yes it is . . .

"IT'S just a jump to the left . . ." Yes, they've been on their feet at the Edinburgh Playhouse all week, doing the Time Warp and showing off their Basque clad curves and fishnet-stockinged thighs – and that's just the lads. Which can mean only one thing, The Rocky Horror Show is back in town.

Written by Richard O'Brien, The Rocky Horror Show is the tale of Brad and Janet, two all-American kids drawn into a twilight world where life is lived for pleasure alone.

It's 37 years since the intergalactic deflowerer of innocence known as Frank N Furter and his wonderfully debauched menagerie (Columbia, Rocky, Eddie, Magenta and Riff Raff) first made landfall on the stage of the Theatre Upstairs in London. That's four decades of the audience participation that has made the show a cult classic.

In the past, that participation has included firing water pistols to provide the rain when our heroes are caught in a storm; throwing rice during the wedding scene; Bounty bars thrown on the line "Paradise is to be mine"; Kit Kats thrown on the line "Suddenly, you get a break"; and playing cards thrown on the line "Cards for sorrow". Then there are the responses. Each character has their own, most too rude to detail here.

Before the days of health and safety, it was also common practice for lighters to be held aloft during the song Over At The Frankenstein Place – today, mobile phones suffice. Just as well, at one performance of the show at the King's Theatre back in the 80s, one audience member set fire not just to his wig, but tights and seat.

1984 was the year I first experienced the world of Rocky Horror. Again it was at the Playhouse and Bobby Crush was Frank N Furter. It was glorious mayhem. Everyone was dressed up. The responses began the moment the curtain raised and continued until it fell.

Crush interacted with the audience, as did the Narrator who took the brunt of the abuse, and in the rain scene someone in the Upper Circle emptied a fire extinguisher over those in the stalls – which was all right because they'd already covered their heads with newspapers or put their brollies up.

I've lost track of the number of times I've seen the show since, with the likes of Darren Day and Jason Donovan in the role of Frank N Furter. It has to be said that, in the current tour, David Bedella out-camps them all in what is a slick – just one hour, 40 minutes long – romp through the highlights of O'Brien's cult masterpiece.

With impeccable production values, including the best sound I've heard at the Playhouse in years, it's a brilliant production . . . with just one major niggle.

With the exception of the Narrator's scenes (played with relish in Edinburgh by Gerard Kelly) all the moments of audience participation have been stripped from the script. Sad, as Rocky Horror is as much about those off stage as those on it. Note to director: when you forget that, you have lost sight of its appeal.

Of course, weekend audiences should prove more challenging for the cast and having seen Bedella rise to the occasion when faced with a particularly boisterous audience in Belfast recently, tonight and tomorrow's performances should be something special.

One thing that still holds true, however, is the show's uplifting ethos: Don't dream it.

Be it.