PREVIEW
What: The Caretaker
Where: Roxy Theatre
When: Opens 8 p.m. tonight, continues to May 7
Tickets: $20 to $47 (bluebridgetheatre.ca or 250-382-3370)
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Playwright Harold Pinter was famous 鈥� indeed, even infamous 鈥� for his pauses.
There are hundreds in his plays, all scrupulously indicated as stage directions. The Homecoming has 224; Betrayal has 140. And The Caretaker 鈥� now being revived by the Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre 鈥� has 149.
Jacob Richmond, who is directing The Caretaker, has strong ideas about what he calls 鈥渢he legendary Pinter pause.鈥�
His cast 鈥� R.J. Peters, Lindsay Robinson and Paul Fauteux 鈥� will honour each and every one. However, Richmond has cautioned the actors not to make the pauses arbitrary or lifeless. The audience must sense there鈥檚 something taking place during these non-verbal mini-interludes.
鈥淲e discussed what鈥檚 happening in those moments. How did that person get from that thought to that thought?鈥� Richmond said during a rehearsal break at the Roxy Theatre.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had two-hour discussions about one single moment [of not speaking], about what鈥檚 going on in each of these characters鈥� brains.鈥� Pinter, who won the Nobel Prize and died in 2008, was a towering figure in 20th-century British drama. He was renowned for his 鈥渃omedy of menace,鈥� in which characters 鈥� through mundane and often cryptic dialogue 鈥� typically struggle for power or seek to protect themselves.
The Caretaker is about a man, Aston, who invites a tramp named Davies to stay at his rundown flat. Davies later gets into an altercation with Aston鈥檚 brother Mick, who teases the vagrant by asking who his banker is.
At one point, the three scuffle over a bag of belongings that Aston brought Davies. The scene is a homage to a vaudevillian hat routine in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, one of Pinter鈥檚 heroes (Richmond directed Blue Bridge鈥檚 production of Waiting for Godot in 2015).
Richmond said there is a difference between the pauses and the silences (the latter are also indicated as stage directions) in Pinter鈥檚 plays.
鈥淎 pause is usually them searching for something to say. A silence is absolute resignation,鈥� he said.
Pinter has a reputation as a serious absurdist playwright. Yet Richmond (himself a playwright known for his quirky black humour in such works as Legoland and Ride the Cyclone) said Pinter鈥檚 plays are amusing as well.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e screamingly funny. One person will go from talking about a bus route to immediately attacking another person, [saying] 鈥榃hat the hell are you doing here?鈥� 鈥� he said.
鈥淲hen you have the first reading of these plays, people go: 鈥業 don鈥檛 get it. It just seems punishing.鈥� Then when you actually stage it, they go: 鈥榃ow, it鈥檚 really funny.鈥� 鈥�
Richmond first saw The Caretaker when he was in his mid-teens. He attended a production at the University of Toronto staged by three plumbers who were amateur actors.
鈥淭hese three plumbers just loved Pinter. They鈥檇 been working on it for, like, four years. They were fantastic. We were totally like fan-boys after.鈥�
Richmond had come across Pinter鈥檚 plays shortly before this. He was impressed by a book featuring the so-called 鈥渁ngry young men鈥� generation of working- and middle-class playwrights in Britain. As well as Pinter, they include John Osborne, who coined the term with his play Look Back in Anger.
Richmond was interviewed the day after learning that Ride the Cyclone, which recently had an off-Broadway run, is nominated for a prestigious Drama League Award. The New York Times cited the offbeat musical about teenagers who die in a freak roller-coaster accident as one of the best shows of 2016.
The Belfry Theatre has commissioned Richmond and his Ride the Cyclone partner, composer Brooke Maxwell, to create a new musical. However, the demands of working on Ride the Cyclone every time a new production comes up (the musical will be staged by Seattle鈥檚 5th Avenue Theatre next year) has slowed progress on new ventures, Richmond said.
鈥淚t鈥檒l be right at that moment when you鈥檙e ready to start, and then it鈥檒l be OK, go ahead and do Cyclone,鈥� he said.
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