The Caretaker

Our latest visit to the Octagon was to see Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker, which must be good, we thought, because we'd heard of it. We always enjoy our visits to the Octagon as the performances are well put together; lighting, set design, costumes - and this production was no exception, and the acting was excellent too.

The only problem was: we just didn't get it. The play centres around a tramp who has been beaten up in a fight and is offered space in a bed-sit by one of the other characters. The play explores the different outlook on life that they have and the tensions that develop between the two, especially when the tenent's brother (who is also the bedsit owner) appears.

And really, that's about it. There's sprinklings of amusing dialogue throughout and also some more poignant sections too, but nothing much else happens except some threads of a story that never really get resolved. Perhaps that's why it's so acclaimed, but it just didn't work for us.

The theatre was packed though, so there must be something about it, even if we didn't see it.