Sizzling Gemma prepares for a Homecoming

GEMMA CHAN will play one of the 20th century’s most controversial female roles in a 50th anniversary production of Harold Pi nter’s The Homecoming. The actress, who stars as the robotic ‘synth’ Anita in the Channel 4 hit drama Humans, will play Ruth in the drama — a character derided by some critics as a misogynistic creation and hailed by others as a symbol of empowerment. Whatever your view, it’s a sizzling part. Jamie Lloyd will direct Ms Chan, the lone female in a company of five men that includes Gary Kemp as Teddy, Ruth’s philosophy professor husband. The couple travel from their home in the U.S. to visit Teddy’s father, uncle and two brothers, who live in London. Those parts will be played by the stellar line-up of Ron Cook, Keith Allan, John Simm and John Macmillan.

The Homecoming will run at the Trafalgar Studios in Whitehall for a 12-week season from November 14. It’s a venue popular with young audiences — and to that end tickets on Monday nights will cost just £15.

Lloyd told me he cast 32-year-old Ms Chan because she has ‘a very powerful sensuality’ combined with the curiosity and talent necessary to explore a character who ‘uses her sexuality for power’.

He added that Ruth’s power is the key to Pinter’s 1965 play about sexual and psychological family dynamics i n an ‘animalistic’ North London household.

He said that sometimes audiences leave the play believing Ruth has been forced into prostitution by her in-laws, while others disagree. ‘She’s going to rule the roost over this household,’ Lloyd insisted. The Homecoming is the fifth Pinter play Lloyd has directed. He collaborated closely with the Nobel Prize-winning playwright before Pinter’s death in 2008. ‘Some people think it’s a misogynistic play — and Harold was horrified at that. It’s about a woman who is in complete control of her own destiny,’ Lloyd insisted. Ms Chan — who has a film project to complete before rehearsals begin in late October — said she was ‘excited and daunted’ at the prospect of playing Ruth. ‘She’s a complex woman who absolutely turns the tables on the men in the house. I don’t see her as a victim in any way,’ she said. T he Homecoming is being produced as part of Lloyd’s deal with the Ambassador Theatre Group.