AP: Menace Missing From 'The Caretaker' By MICHAEL KUCHWARA AP Drama Critic NEW YORK (AP)--The menace is mostly missing in the Roundabout Theatre Company's uneven Broadway revival of ``The Caretaker,'' Harold Pinter's bleak treatise on identity and possessiveness set in a squalid London attic. Instead, what we get at center stage is a cozy, almost genial star turn by Patrick Stewart as a tattered, decrepit bum who finds himself in the company of two strange brothers, played by Kyle MacLachlan and Aidan Gillen. Stewart mines the play for laughs, which is OK, but then fails to tap into the nastiness and eventual desperation that should drive his character. Davies, a man of indeterminate background and dubious morals, is deliberately enigmatic. Yet Stewart provides an odd sense of comfort, compared to the unnerving, more appropriate performances by MacLachlan and, particularly, Gillen. These days, "The Caretaker," which introduced Broadway audiences to Pinter in 1961, is a leisurely affair--three acts of cat-and-mouse games that go on a bit too long under David Jones' methodical direction. The plot? Davies has been brought to the house in West London by Aston, played by MacLachlan. The tramp is being considered for a job as caretaker in this dilapidated building, and, as such, has to coo up to these odd siblings if he wants to have a place to stay. Stewart, looking emaciated and almost wizened in designer Jane Greenwood's dirty, ragtag clothing, exerts a great deal of charm in winning over the audience, if not his would-be employers. The actor can command an audience's attention. All those years of playing charismatic Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" certainly helped. MacLachlan finds considerable emotion in the mournful Aston, a quiet man whose mental state is none-too steady after a bout in a mental hospital (and electroshock therapy) left him slow of speech and thought. It's not a showy portrait, but one that grows on you as the evening progresses. Where play and performance come together most successfully is in the work of Gillen, best known here as the star of the British version of "Queer As Folk." Gillen has a sneering baby face, just right for Mick, the jittery, almost sadistic younger brother. The actor gives a tough yet funny performance as a vaguely psychotic punk who takes delight in tormenting Stewart's character _ while thinking up ways to redecorate the dreary lodgings. What's more, Gillen jolts the play and the audience back to the uneasiness that should permeate the production. "The Caretaker" is a series of strong confrontations, with each brother getting a chance to have a go at Davies and Davies lashing back at them. John Lee Beatty's remarkably cluttered attic set, a gloomy, junk-filled room, goes a long way toward suggesting a disturbing environment. It has a sense of foreboding that the rest of this production of "The Caretaker" lacks. Click here to read the original article. [Link may/may not be active]