Theatre Review: "The Caretaker" NOVEMBER 11TH, 2003 A new production of Harold Pinter's 1960 play "The Caretaker" debuted on Broadway this week courtesy of the Roundabout Theatre Company. Here with his review is NY1 contributing critic Dennis Cunningham. There was a time, boys and girls, ladies and gents, when plays by Harold Pinter were all the go, very sought out, and endlessly talked about. Why, there's even a 30-year-old Stephen Sondheim lyric, from his musical "Company," in a song about the idle rich, referring to "A matinee/a Pinter play." But I'm not here to suggest that Pinter.s plays are now passe. Well, some perhaps (he wrote many). But many are very much alive. A prime example: Pinter's "The Caretaker," just now on Broadway under the auspices of New York's formidable Roundabout Theatre. It.s a play about three men in the attic of a tumble down house . two brothers, one young but enterprising (actor Aiden Gillen), one older, remarkably slow and quiet (actor Kyle MacLachlan) - and then Patrick Stewart as the interloper, the baffling untrustworthy guest. When a character in the play says, "Don.t push it too hard," it.s a rare moment of contention, of threat, of shifting allegiances. Rare, however, in a play where such moments should be closer to commonplace, along with regular doses of bafflement, anxiety, and aching uncertainty. What has gone wrong here? Well, not the play. Rather, the directing and the acting. Patrick Stewart is a victim of his own large, plumy, overpowering voice. It.s just the wrong voice for the character of the insinuating visitor .who seems to be taking over.. Where's the wiliness, the brazen thrusts? Where's the character? It.s there only in outline. As, too, with Kyle Maclachlan, a man who moves quietly, but has no inner reserves to suggest the dangers within. Only young Aiden Gillen relishes the challenge of his work. Of course, he has the best role. Although, quite frankly, he shouldn't have. Mind you, the production is not without its values, but the values lie almost entirely with Mr. Pinter's play, though it.s certainly not shown off to full advantage. Unfortunately, more often than not, the acting, the directing, the casting (two-thirds of all that, that is) are hiding the values of the play. The Roundabout Theatre has done terrific work over the years, and we'd be much poorer without them. However, I.ve seen five or six Pinter plays at the Roundabout . someone is obsessed with Pinter over there - and almost all of them were mediocre or outright failures. {One of them was directed by Pinter himself. Actually, Pinter's "Betrayal" came awfully close to success. Close to it.) Let.s put a Roundabout moratorium on Pinter until we're very sure we have the ideal play, director, and cast. Meanwhile, we can bask in the many other glories Roundabout has given, and I'm sure, will continue to give us. - Dennis Cunningham