Sunday, March 22, 2009
My Reaction to The Caretaker
I personally enjoyed this play the least of all 4 plays we studied in the drama section of our curriculum. This Absurdist play did not seem to fit its genre entirely, at least when compared to the full-fledged Absurdist nature of Waiting for Godot and The Bald Soprano. The Caretaker seemed like a softened application of Theatre of the Absurd. There is little repetition, in speech coming mainly from Mick, and in action appearing in Aston's constant tinkering with the toaster. The setting of the play, however, does seem to support the semi-chaotic nature of Absurdist plays, a room riddled with different forms of junk. It is interesting to consider the scene in juxtaposition with Samuel Beckett's Wait for Godot, where the stage is barren except for the tree and the characters. There were no real instances of physical comedy in The Caretaker apart for the scene where Davies, Mick and Aston fight over the bag. Before reading this play, I had read The Birthday Party, also by Harold Pinter, in theatre class, which was far more aggressive than The Caretaker as an Absurdist piece. I felt little of anything while reading this play, apart from boredom. I found that the knowledge that Aston was actually once in an asylum made it far less absurdist, since his behavior would be understandable as a "crazy" person. Generally, at least in the case of the other Absurd plays we read, the characters are made to seem entirely normal, and the audience is made to feel like there is something wrong with themselves, rather than with the characters. I ended the play feeling somewhat disappointed and unsatisfied. Perhaps this is due to the expectations I had when I started reading it since I was comparing it to the previous Absurd plays we read.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I agree completely with everything you just said. However, I never read the other works by Harold Pinter that you read, and I still was very disappointed in it. You were right about the sheer boredom throughout the play, and it was nice wording when you said it was a "softened" form of Theatre of the Absurd, because that's exactly what I felt too. I felt more like it was attempting too much to be absurdist. Still, you should know the message the playwright is trying to convey about the state of Britain after World War II. Once you have some background information, you can relate more to Davies personality at least, and maybe the play might become more interesting for you as part of the audience. However, I still feel that even with that knowledge, The Caretaker was just too boring, and unnecessarily so. Maybe some comedy would have made it more interesting, and it wouldn't have to necessarily detract from the play's overall message. I also liked how you picked up on how the audience is usually the one to feel that there is something wrong with themselves rather than the characters in usual absurdist plays, but it is not the case in The Caretaker, since a very plausible reason is given for their absurdity (such as Aston and his past traumatic experiences with electro-shock therapy that made hom sort of "crazy"). Nice analysis :)
Post a Comment