The Caretaker

play by Pinter

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Article History

The Caretaker, three-act play by Harold Pinter, published and first produced in 1960. The work is Pinter’s second full-length play and it concerns the delicate balance between trust and betrayal in familial relationships.

The action of the play occurs in the flat of Aston and Mick, two brothers. Aston, who is slow-witted, befriends a wheedling, garrulous tramp named Davies. When Davies appears at the brothers’ flat, Mick, who is the smarter of the brothers but is unstable, vies for Davies’s friendship. Individually, both brothers offer Davies a role as caretaker. Finally realizing through the course of the play that the equilibrium they have established is in jeopardy, the brothers ultimately reject Davies.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.