The Caretaker

by Harold Pinter · 1960

A landmark of modern drama and Pinter's second full-length play, The Caretaker is a tense, darkly comic three-character study of power, identity, and the fragile balance between trust and betrayal. Homeless old Davies is taken in by the gentle, withdrawn Aston, who offers him a bed and an odd job as caretaker of his cluttered West London home. But Aston's strange, volatile brother Mick hovers nearby, and the battle for control of the room—and of Davies himself—slowly turns cruel. With its now-famous