The Guardian by Harold Pinter at the Teatro Lo Spazio in Rome

It had its world premiere in Space theater, From 16 to 19 November, The Guardian By Harold Pinter, directed Duccio Camerini.

Two brothers and an old man. A room in the suburbs that looks like a warehouse, surrounded by immigrants of all races, in a big city that is now ugly.

It all begins when Aston brings to that “house” a man he met while they were arguing in a bar. The man is an old man, perhaps a homeless man. Another younger brother, Mick, is also coming out soon.

The old man immediately understands that this place represents an opportunity for him; But in order for him to stay there, and perhaps play the role of “trustee,” as he promised, he knows he will have to play a different game with each of the “owners.”

The brothers are not ashamed, they do not have a real job, and they spend a lot of time inside this unclassified place.

A ridiculous situation with an underlying threat, which makes the triangle of dependencies between the characters more and more aggravating and more ridiculous.

Is the old man the more cunning of the two, especially when he tries to turn the brothers against each other?

Or did his time with them have a specific date from the beginning?

Are the two boys really as confused and indecisive as they seem, so young and fragile in their confusion (Aston suffers from an illness that years earlier may have caused him to suffer electric shocks)?

Or is their meeting with the old man just a trap, pure and indulgent violence, not as bloody as that practiced by the heroes of A Clockwork Orange or Funny Games, but no less effective?

Despite belonging to Pinter’s early period, dating back to 1960, The Guardian has always been judged as one of the pinnacles of a future Nobel Prize.

A masterpiece set among the workers and using comedy, vulgarity and menace (its author’s most powerful weapons), which remain unclassifiable: a comedy of power between powerless characters.

It’s probably more annoying then, if we’re being honest.

Just consider the wars and horrors we have had to swallow over the past sixty years.

Watchman