The Caretaker *****

This play, set in London in the late sixties - early seventies, had the mood set with appropriate music from the ‘Who’ along with snippets of Radio Luxemburg 208. For those Pommie sentimentalists, one part was Horace Bachelor of Keynsham, Bristol spelled K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M.

This is the tale of a Cockney vagrant (Tony Nicholls) who is invited to live in a cramped and disgusting room with an apparently respectable, but withdrawn and strangely quiet young man, Aston (Daniel Gillett – seen recently in Pinter’s ‘On the Road’) who has met him in a cafe.

The elderly tramp, who has been on the run from the Social Security for many years, still has a great deal of self pride and certainly won’t be pawned off with just any old clothing that is passed his way – ‘especially chequered shirts’. The vagrant is somewhere between Alf Garnett and Fagan. He talks incessantly and his powers of reasoning and his constant desire to negotiate to a higher plain fascinating.

Then Aston’s brother Mick (Sam O’Sullivan – seen recently in the comedy ‘Shorts’ at the Blue Room) arrived at the flat. He is a jack-the-lad bullyboy and the whole scenario starts to change.

The directors, Tenielle Clarke and Duncan Sharp, have captured the mood of the play perfectly. The three characters are all clearly defined. They have managed to capture their personalities with subtle movements and expressions.

Tony Nicholls’ immense talents don’t need to be described to anyone in WA. In this his swansong (?) even to his friends and students, it was very easy to forget it was he playing the part. How often has it been said that those that cannot do, teach!! However, with Tony’s extraordinary tuition, it is little wonder that so many highly talented actors have come from the Curtin course. To say that he was outstanding would be an understatement.

All of the characters had decent sized chunks of monologue to perform, but at no stage did you lose concentration. Sam O’Sullivan had a horrendous tongue tying blast to roar at the poor caretaker, then with the help of a well-conceived, very slow lighting change the other brother sensitively related part of his past.

The set was most inventive, the costumes foul (the long johns repulsive) and the few sound effects hilarious.

I recommend this play to any one who appreciates superb acting or is considering a career in the theatre. Outstanding, impossible to fault.