Justin Audibert Archives - The Play Podcast

083 – The Caretaker by Harold Pinter

by Douglas Schatz | Jul 10, 2024 | Podcast Episodes

Ian McDiarmid as Davies
The Caretaker
Chichester Festival Theatre
June 2024
Photo by Ellie Kurttz

083 – The Caretaker by Harold Pinter

The Caretaker was Harold Pinter’s breakthrough play. It premiered at the Arts Theatre Club in London’s West End in April 1960, transferring to the Duchess Theatre where it ran for 444 performances, and then to Broadway. A film version of the play followed in 1963. The success of The Caretaker changed its author’s life, and perhaps the future of British theatre.

The play is set entirely in a single room in a dilapidated house in West London, where three men who live on the margins of society engage in a territorial and psychological battle. The characters’ mysterious manoeuvrings are presented in what we now recognise as Pinter’s cryptic mix of comedy and menace, delivered with his characteristic relish in the precision and panache of language.

As we record this episode a new production of the play has opened at the Chichester Festival theatre directed by Justin Audibert, and I am delighted to welcome Justin to the podcast to help us interpret Pinter’s enigmatic work.

Justin Audibert

Justin Audibert is the Artistic Director of the Chichester Festival Theatre, one of the UK’s most illustrious producing theatres. Justin was previously the Artistic Director of the Unicorn Theatre, and his other directing credits include productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Soho Theatre and many more.

His productions of Macbeth and The Winter’s Tale, both adapted by him for young audiences, are part of the National Theatre Collection.

In 2012 he was the recipient of the Leverhulme Award for Emerginf Directors from the National Theatre Studio.

He is a trustee of Invisible Flock and the Peggy Ramsay Foundation,and is on the Advisory Council for the Children’s Touring Partnership.

Recommended Play

Justin recommended Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams, and
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford.

Photo by Seamus Ryan

We have footnotes for this episode …

The Footnotes to our episode on Harold Pinter’s breakthrough play, The Caretaker, include notes on the source for the character of Aston, the use of language as a means of evasion and negotiation, and the significance of Aston’s statue of Buddha.

Footnotes for Patrons

Become a Patron!

Since I launched The Play Podcast in April 2020, I have managed to eschew any form of advertising or sponsorship, and I would like to continue to produce the podcast without doing so. I therefore invite you to help me to continue to make the podcast by becoming a Patron. Additional benefits available to Patrons include Footnotes on the plays covered in the podcast, as well as early access to The Play Review. For details click here Thank you very much for listening and for your support. Douglas

The Texts

If you are interested in buying the play text or other related books, we’d be delighted if you choose to purchase them from our selected partners Bookshop.org and Blackwell’s. Not only will you be supporting independent booksellers, we will also earn a small commission on every book you purchase, which helps to keep the podcast going. Click on the cover to buy from our chosen partner. Thank you.

115 – The Dance of Death by August Strindberg

Oct 6, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death is set in a remote army base on the coast of Sweden, where an army captain and his wife are trapped together in an unhappy marriage. The captain, bitter at his lack of promotion, and his wife, frustrated at having been forced to give up her career as an actress, occupy their empty hours tearing into each other in a brutal dance of mutual cruelty.

Strindberg’s scorching portrait of marital strife was written in 1900, but has had a lasting influence. Arthur Miller dubbed Strindberg, “the mad inventor of modern theatre”, and echoes of his unflinching dissection of marital discord can be seen in the plays of Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, and John Osborne.

Sir Richard Eyre adapted and directed a wonderful production of Dance of Death at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames earlier this year, and I am delighted that Sir Richard joins me in this episode to guide us through Strindberg’s blistering onslaught on marriage.

114 – Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare

Sep 22, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost is described on the title page in the first publication of its text in 1598 as “A Pleasant Conceited Comedie.” I imagine that the epithets were intended to highlight the play’s courtly aesthetic, its frothy merry-go-round of courtship, and above all perhaps, its ostentatiously intricate word play. For it is a play rich in the love and perils of language.

I am joined to assay Shakespeare’s conceited comedy by the Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, Tom Littler. In the summer of 2026 Tom adapted and directed a magical double bill of Shakespeare, producing Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing in repertory, and staging them both ‘en plein air’.

113 – Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

Aug 24, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tom Stoppard’s 1993 play, Arcadia, is viewed by many as his finest play, renowned for the breadth of its intellectual interrogations and its formal invention. The play is a structural masterpiece of ideas, as well as a teasing detective story, joyous comedy, and emotionally rich exploration of love and loss.

As we record this episode a wonderful new production of Arcadia is playing at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End, following its acclaimed run at the Old Vic theatre earlier this year. I am delighted to share the challenge and the pleasure of exploring Stoppard’s dazzling drama with the director of the new production, Carrie Cracknell.

Justin Audibert

by Douglas Schatz | Jul 9, 2024 | Contributor

Justin Audibert

His productions of Macbeth and The Winter’s Tale, both adapted by him for young audiences, are part of the National Theatre Collection.

In 2012 he was the recipient of the Leverhulme Award for Emerginf Directors from the National Theatre Studio.

He is a trustee of Invisible Flock and the Peggy Ramsay Foundation,and is on the Advisory Council for the Children’s Touring Partnership.

Photo by Seamus Ryan.

Podcast Episode(s)

083 - The Caretaker by Harold Pinter

Recommended Play(s)

Justin recommended Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams, and
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford.