The Entertainer - TNT
26th March 2007

A year after the ground-breaking success of his Look Back in Anger in 1956, John Osborne penned this critique of post-war Britain, using the demise of the music hall as a metaphor for the decline of the British Empire. Punctuating scenes of Archie Rice's uncomfortably dysfunctional home life with his end-of-pier patter, Osborne paints a jaundiced view of the future of both family and country. Robert Lindsay makes a bitter, irredeemably sleazy, yet dapper Archie (a bit too accomplished, perhaps, for such a washed-up, third-rate performer, but memorably "dead behind the eyes" emotionally). He gets first-rate support from John Normington as his bigoted father and from Pam Ferris as his long-suffering second wife, drowning her misery in gin as they wait for news of their captured soldier son in this surprisingly topical state-of-the-nation drama.
Old Vic, The Cut, SE1, 0870-060 6628. Until May 19

The Caretaker - TNT
26th March 2007

The current unofficial Pinter fest continues with some inspired casting — Hogwarts' Filch as the filthy, stinking tramp who is invited into the equally squalid, junk-strewn bed-sit of mentally troubled Aston and is offered the job of caretaker. With his cadaverous features and lanky frame, David Bradley seems born to play the part of Davies, the xenophobic vagrant whose plans to pick up his papers from Sidcup are as unlikely to materialise as the garden shed which his host intends to build. His ungrateful, wheedling manner contrasts effectively with Con O'Neill's sluggish, damaged Aston, and (as Aston's taunting younger brother) EastEnders' Nigel Harman brings a sharp, controlled menace to this impressive revival.
Tricycle, Kilburn High Rd, NW6, 020-7328 1000. Until April 14

LOUISE KINGSLEY