New York Daily News - This 'Caretaker' should retire Monday, November 10th, 2003 Harold Pinter's "The Caretaker" has not worn well. It's hard to imagine how much excitement this play caused when it opened in New York in 1962 alongside works by authors such as Beckett, Ionesco and the young Albee. The early productions of Pinter were known for their pregnant pauses, in which critics and hip audiences could detect all manner of profundity. Because the plays were surrounded by an aura of hocuspocus, they were also unsettling. The catchword invariably used to describe them was "menace." They were paradigms of the climate of fear of the nuclear age. Little of this works anymore, as can be seen in the Roundabout's current revival of "The Caretaker," an early play about two brothers and their ever-changing relationship with a homeless man one of them invites to live with him. What was once chilling and disquieting now seems academic, perhaps because we have seen the play so often or because modern life assaults us with far more jarring images of "menace." Take, for example, the older brother's long monologue about his experience in a sanitarium, where he witnessed and experienced electroshock therapy. It is possible that performed in a less catatonic manner than Kyle MacLachlan does, the monologue might still be upsetting, but what was once startling has become a TV commonplace. Interestingly, the character that seems the freshest is the nasty younger brother, perhaps because his whimsicality (inviting the homeless man to come to his place to "listen to some Tchaikovsky") seems weirder, more surreal, more unfathomable. Aiden Gillen plays him with great flair. Patrick Stewart plays the title character with improvisatory zest, but the role, like the play itself, seems artificial. The set is by John Lee Beatty, much of whose recent work has been opulent. Here he shows himself a master of shabbiness. Peter Kaczorowski has lit the stage powerfully. Perhaps it's time to let Pinter rest a while. It would be interesting to see a revival of some plays by his contemporary David Storey, whose work, at least in retrospect, seems far more solid. Click here to read the original article. [Link may/may not be active]