The Homecoming

On the 7^th of December, we went to watch ‘The Homecoming’ at The Trafalgar Studios. It is a two-act play first published in 1964; it was premiered in London 1965 and New York in 1967. Harold Pinter was born on October 10, 1930, in England, the son of a hardworking Jewish tailor. He was a playwright, screenwriter, actor and director who wrote the play. In addition, he wrote a few other best-known plays such as ‘The Birthday Party’. Harold Pinter’s plays are particularly famous for their use of understatement to convey characters' thoughts and feelings.  He grew up in a working-class area, full of railroad yards and factories. When World War II broke out in 1939, Pinter and most London children, was evacuated to the countryside to be safe from the German bombing. Pinter married Vivien Merchant, an actress, for several years and they had one son. He then embarked on many long affairs, which had cost him his marriage and the love and respect of his son.

The play was set in North London; it has only 6 characters, five men and one woman: Max, a retired butcher (Ron Cook); his brother Sam, a chauffeur (Keith Allen); and Max’s three sons - Teddy (Gary Kemp), an American philosophy professor; Lenny (John Simm), who appears to be a pimp; and Joey (John Macmillan), a boxer in training who works in demolition. Lastly, Ruth (Gemma Chan), who is Teddy’s wife. The play concerns Teddy’s and Ruth’s “homecoming”, which has different symbolic and thematic associations. Throughout the play, the set didn’t change apart from some of the props being moved around from time to time, it was very simplistic. The Homecoming is a psychological thriller featuring a torn family who have changed over time, each having their own problems, most likely because of their mother’s death.  As Teddy and Ruth return to the family home after six years in America, a riveting game of sexual warfare, morality and power enter the room. It is an unsettling show of one-upmanship which develops throughout the play as Teddy’s father and brothers battle to impress his wife; they’re all startled at first when they see her because there hasn’t been a woman in the house since their mother. There is a theme of not being trusted by anyone in the family as they’re all capable of doing things if they wish to do. Also, anger is a key theme; each family member seems to express their anger whenever they feel like it. The theme of love prances in the air as they each question each other’s love. When Ruth asks for fresh air, Teddy insists on going to sleep in case anyone wakes up and hears them. From this I can tell that there seem to be a few problems in the marriage with trust. Ruth is overprotected by Teddy causing her to feel unhappy because she is not given space to do what she wants.  The play defeats the purpose of female equality for example, the next morning when everyone sees Ruth and don’t know that she’s Teddy’s wife, they all assume that she is a whore, one of Lenny’s prostitutes after Sam works out that they’ve been up all night together. The Homecoming is set in a matriarchal society where men only see that women are only good for cooking and pleasure; sex. From this I can see that Pinter is portraying feminism.

Soutra Gilmour, the production designer, designed a simple red frame around the stage along. I felt that the idea of having a plain and uncomplicated set was to get the feeling of timelessness; a sense of present living in the past. For example, when Teddy returns home after an absence of six years, he returns to a place where nothing has changed. The house, furniture, lock on the door, his empty bedroom, and his family are unchanged. It is as if a world where all the action has been unchanged for generations. I thought that she did a great job at having a simplistic design because each furniture on stage stood out to the audience which was very effective. The door with the unchanged lock stood out to me the most because it was a gateway to freedom and I think that was a strong symbol in the play. It was very clear to me that the grand chair was the father’s chair because he was the only one who sat in the chair and when Ruth sat on it, the men looked at each other thinking ‘She just sat in Max’s chair!’

Richard Howell, lighting designer, contributed to the play to setting the mood and atmosphere in a scene. I thought the lighting was very successful in intriguing the audience for example, the naked light bulbs pulsing at different moments and the music being played live and not on a recording, made the atmosphere so tense that even the audience were scared to know what’s going to happen when it stops. Another example was that the lighting was adjusted to show a sense of mood and tension was when an actor would step onto the stage and the lighting would go back to normal. I thought this stood out and was a fun special effect to see as it made the character the centre of attention because the spotlight was on the character on stage. Lastly, the lighting was used to establish the different times of the day.

The costumes represented the person they were, in this case they were all middle classed. From the way a person is dressed, you can tell what status they are for example, for someone who is working class you can immediately see that they are poor and wear scruffy clothing whereas someone who is high class is wealthy and is neatly dressed, covered in expensive jewellery. The use of cigars on stage showed the theme of masculinity; I was quite curious as to if they were real cigars being smoked on stage. This is a health hazard that should have been discussed however it worked really well in the play.

Overall, from what I saw of the play, I thought that it was very well directed and it was clear that it had a deep meaning. The cast did a wonderful job of keeping that same energy going when they performed as they had to perform again that same night for a few weeks. I’ve been to see a few plays myself such as ‘War Horse’ and ‘Othello’ and they have all got a similarity of maintaining their characters throughout the play and remembering their lines. However, for musicals, not only do they have to memorise their lines but they have to memorise their dance moves and have a clear throat for their singing; they have to maintain a lot of energy. I enjoyed watching ‘The Homecoming’ although at times it left me quite confused because I didn’t understand some of the words they would say. I think having Gemma Chan or Keith Allen in the play was a successful thing because they are both quite famous actors who enjoy what they do and also Harold Pinter is able to gain popularity from the public to watch it; they are people’s inspiration. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite understand most of the play so I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone around my age because it is mostly for the people who are older and much more mature so they’re able to relate and understand the storyline.