THE CARETAKER cast:
L-R Daniel Beecher, Joe Cronin, Matthew Ivan Bennett
Photo: Thom Gourley

It is a testament, I think, to the complexity and depth of THE CARETAKER that I am having so much trouble with this blog post.  I honestly don’t know where to start.  I’m baffled.

I spent the better part of this last Spring and Summer doing research in preparation for this play.  I spent hours at the library, pouring over books about Pinter, his writings, his life.  I read Freudian psychoanalyses of his plays, I read interviews with him and essays by people who worked with him.  Anything I could find that could possibly be of use in the creation of this production (and, more specifically, my character Aston).

And of course, I read the play itself. Over and over and over.

The truth is, I was terrified.  The chance to do a Harold Pinter play does not come up often for an actor (especially one in a small theatrical market like Salt Lake), and I really didn’t want to blow it.  In my research, Pinter was frequently referred to as “an actor’s playwright.” His characters are so rich and layered, and yet often so raw and basic.  If actors are addicts, Pinter’s words are “the pure stuff”… the unadulterated, unfiltered hit we spend our lives jonzing for.

The funny thing is that, as an actor, I feel like I almost have to work backwards with Pinter.  Normally with a play, I start out with a solid but basic foundational understanding of what my character is about, and I build on that throughout the rehearsal process.  I gain more and more understanding, and with each new insight, I’m able to present a more fleshed-out, thinking, feeling person. So often, the image of a “great actor” is one of a man in the violent throes of tearful passion.  You know the scene: everything he loves has been destroyed and he’s consumed with grief and hatred.  He’s kneeling over the bodies of his loved ones and screaming vengeful epithets to the heavens.  Yeah… working on Pinter is the opposite of that.

With this play, I spent the first week of rehearsal finding a thinking, feeling, person, and have spent every day since trying to dismantle that work.  Starting with a machete, hacking away at the dense jungle of passions and emotions, I’ve been clearing away everything that isn’t absolutely necessary.  With each pass over each scene, we make finer and finer adjustments, cutting back more and more.  “Nope- too mental!” comes the call from John, our director.  “Make it simpler!”  The machete becomes a bowie knife, which gives way to a utility blade, until finally I’m paring back my work with a surgeon’s scalpel- so close to the bare heart, that the slightest slip one way or the other could mean disaster.

Ok, I’m getting dramatic.  Sorry.  But that’s what it feels like (and that’s what you get from someone who majored in “drama”).   I’m SOOO excited to see how all this translates to an audience.  Will any of this work come through and be as powerful for you as it has been for me? Who knows.  Having watched the excellent work of my fellow actors, I suspect we have a powerful piece of theatre on our hands.  Whether you like it or not, though, I guarantee you’ll have a lot to talk about after the show!