The Caretaker [antikvár]

Plot and structure 'As far as Pinter is concerned, The Caretaker is just a play about two brothers and a tramp in a room.' (John Russell Taylor in: The Playwrights Speak, p. xiv) Act One A man wearing a leather jacket is revealed sitting on a bed in a room which is full of miscellaneous objects: some — like paint buckets and boxes full of nuts and screws, a step-ladder, a blowlamp and some planks of wood — seem to suggest a coherent purpose, but there is also the statue of a Buddha, a shopping trolley, and a number of ornaments piled together on top of a second bed. The man, Mick, sits looking about him, until, at the sound of a door banging and muffled voices, he leaves silently. Aston and Davies come in. Aston's clothes are shabby but neat. Davies's old coat, lack of shirt and general unkemptness proclaim him to be a tramp. He is out of breath and still almost incoherent with outrage at having been set upon in the café where he was working as a cleaner and from which Aston has evidently just rescued him. Aston invites him to stay until he gets himself fixed up elsewhere and they unload the objects from the bed near the window. Aston then offers Davies a small sum of money which the tramp pockets. Davies is in need of a strong pair of shoes to replace his sandals. He is also anxious to recover his bag of belongings left behind at the café. He plans, he says, to journey to Sidcup — an outer suburb to the south east of London, in Kent - once the weather improves. There he hopes to collect papers which he claims will help him prove his official identity and get his life and prospects sorted out. He has, meanwhile, been passing himself off as someone called Jenkins, using a stolen insurance card to support the alias. As Davies takes off his trousers and climbs into bed, he comments unhappily on the bucket hanging above him to catch any water leaking through the roof. Aston sits on his own bed, mending a plug. The light fades. Next morning Aston is the first to wake. He disturbs Davies who wakes suddenly and with alarm. He vigorously denies Aston's