Unhappy medium

>> The Caretaker is yet another Montreal play suffering from insufficient rehearsal

KEEPING IT DOWN: The Caretaker

by AMY BARRATT

The biggest problem professional theatre has in this town is a lack of time. How often have I written that a show was good considering the short rehearsal period? Audiences, at this point, have stopped expecting excellence from the theatregoing experience; they’ll settle for a couple of laughs and a drink at the bar. But the situation—knowing the final product could be so much better—must be incredibly frustrating for the theatre community. So why is nobody doing anything about it?

I’m having these thoughts the morning after seeing Pinter’s The Caretaker at Centaur. This production has a special challenge in that a casting change took place just days before opening. Tuesday and Wednesday previews were cancelled, so the performance I saw Thursday was the cast’s first before an audience. Pre-curtain, the venerable Douglas Campbell, who directed the show, stood up to announce that since Kent Allen had only had a couple of days to rehearse, he would be performing script in hand. Attempting to put a positive spin on a bad situation, Campbell informed us, in that authoritative bass of his, that we were “privileged” to witness an actor’s process of turning words on a page into a character. Okay, but I have to wonder how the couple that spent $84 on a pair of tickets, plus gas and parking, plus a babysitter, would feel about this surprise privilege.

Centaur put the word out on Monday about the casting change and cancellation of the previews, but there was no mention of an actor being on book until we were in our seats. They also chose not to give any reason for the change from John Dunn-Hill to Allen beyond the deliberately vague “personal reasons” which could mean anything from a health crisis to irreconcilable differences with the director.

So how does Allen fare in this difficult position? Very well. His use of the book was so subtle you could actually forget about it from time to time. Still, your appreciation of the performance remains in the realm of the technical: Watching him lace up a pair of shoes while reading from the script in his hand was one of the most suspenseful moments in the play.

Which leads me to the broader problem. Pinter’s theatre is about menace. Nothing much happens in the plot; if you don’t have that pervasive menace, you don’t have much. This production has it most strongly in the first couple of scenes when we’re just trying to figure out who these characters are. As the play goes on, Campbell has let them get, dare I say it, almost cute in their unpredictability. There is no cute in Pinter.

Alain Goulem (Mick) and Neil Napier (Aston) have both created sharply defined characters, but the three performances never come together into a cohesive piece of theatre. I resent having to make allowances for the late addition of Allen, especially since I suspect cohesion would have been lacking even if the rehearsal process hadn’t been disrupted.

This play runs three hours. The rehearsal period at Centaur is four weeks. Experience has proven that it’s possible to put together an adequate production in that time, no more.

We have the talent in Montreal to create brilliant theatre. Unfortunately, as it stands, we do not have the time.

The Caretaker, to April 22 at Centaur
(453 ST-FRANÇOIS– XAVIER), (514) 288-3161