The Homecoming
Theatre Royal Bath ★★★★✩
D❝ The disconcerting manner in which Pinter sends his actors off at a violent tangent - just as you think you are locked on to his intentions leaves the audience ... struggling to keep contact with the plot
OZENS of directors and actors have attempted to put their own distinct mark on Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming since, under Peter Hall’s guidance, the Royal Shakespeare Company gave it an initial outing at Cardiff’s New Theatre in 1965.
Critically acclaimed when it transferred to London’s Aldwych theatre, and even more so on Broadway where it won three Tony Awards, it has proved to be an enigma to directors, actors and audiences in a continuing string of revivals presented since that first performance.
Director Jamie Glover, and the talented sixstrong cast assembled by Theatre Royal Bath Productions, bring their view of the symbolism and irony within the play as cryptically the author explores sex, power and the female role in society.
There are no tricks or gimmicks to get in the way of Pinter’s text, which is clearly and firmly delivered.
Despite this clarity of thought from director and cast the disconcerting manner in which Pinter sends his actors off at a violent tangent – just as you think you are locked on to his intentions – leaves the audience, like a jockey desperately trying to hold on to a horse who has jinked sideways after jumping a fence, struggling to keep contact with the plot.
There are five men involved: Max – a study of violent contradictions in the capable hands of Keith Allen – the aggressive 70-year-old patriarch of the family, skilfully lurching from praise of his family to abuse in the blink of an eyelid; Ian Bartholomew as Sam, Max’s chauffeur younger brother, nicely ineffectual, unable to cope with the continual mental battering that comes his way from the other family members; and Max’s three sons Lenny, Joey and the homecoming Teddy.
Mathew Horne, leaving his Gavin and Stacey image far behind, makes the self-assured pimp Lenny a thoroughly dislikeable and untrustworthy character from the word go, and there is a lovely, quietly portrayed picture of slowwitted would-be boxer Joey from Geoffrey Lumb.
Into the lives of this dysfunctional family comes their teacher of philosophy brother, Teddy (Sam Alexander), and his wife and mother of his three sons, Ruth (Shanaya Rafaat), returning for a visit from America.
On the face of it this couple have an ideal life and marriage, but cracks soon begin to appear in the relationship, with Ruth finally offering herself sexually to Lenny and Joey.
Max, reasserting his authority, suggests that the family take over Ruth, putting her to work for them as a prostitute.
As she agrees to the arrangement Sam Alexander’s nicely underplayed Teddy departs back to the United States.
A final unexpected vicious twist in the tail comes as it dawns on Max that Shanaya Rafaat’s cleverly portrayed Ruth will probably be the one calling the shots in the future, not him and the boys.
With many more emotional twists and turns also hidden in Pinter’s fascinating play, this is a production to stimulate thought and discussion long after leaving the theatre.