Theatre review: The Homecoming
It's tricky reviewing Pinter as I don't like to say what the plays are actually about - for one thing my interpretation could be way off, for another they're so subject to individual interpretation that imposing my own on them seems like missing the point somewhat. Despite doing an English and Drama degree I've never studied his work (I suspect my time at University was while he was briefly off the radar, before his major revival in the noughties) but in contrast cjg1, with whom I went to the Almeida's production of The Homecoming last night, has studied him and is a big fan, so that made for interesting company.
Teddy (Neil Dudgeon) returns to his family's North London home after 9 years incommunicado, bringing with him the wife they never knew he had. His father Max is implicitly a former gangster, now a rather toothless dictator of a patriarch, the real strength clearly lying with the middle son, Lenny. Along with Max's fussy, queeny brother Sam (Anthony O'Donnell) and youngest son, dim-witted boxer Joey (Danny Dyer) they fall under the spell of Ruth, the first woman to enter the house since Max's wife died - Ruth develops a mutually parasitic relationship with the family, eventually electing to stay with them even when her own husband leaves.
Michael Attenborough's production has drawn attention because it's the first to cast a black actress as Ruth, which they say was simply colour-blind casting, and indeed Jenny Jules is very good as the magisterial figure ruling the roost practically on a whim; inevitably it does add an extra dimension to the story, particularly when Max accuses his son of marrying beneath him. But for the most part this remains a story more about sexual than racial politics. The infamously sexist elements of the story seemed to me to be more attention-seeking than genuinely-felt, and Ruth certainly seems to be totally in control; as played by Jules I got the impression she had no real intention of going along with the appalling plan she apparently agrees to at the end.
Christopher wasn't convinced by Kenneth Cranham's Max, saying he didn't always find his speech that clear, although I can't say I thought that myself. Nigel Lindsey as Lenny was particularly good with his air of menace. Where I saw a play about power games and gender politics, Christopher was interested in how the story challenges preconceptions about relationships and language (he's particularly interested in Pinter's use of language) but then it wouldn't be Pinter if everyone didn't come out of it with something slightly different. It also wouldn't be Pinter without pauses, and last night was a captioned performance, so on occasion it was quite funny to see the famous pauses appear as ellipses on the screen.
And just as a reminder that theatre's unpredictable: As I said Danny Dyer played Joey, the youngest son. He's fairly well-known over here but Americans and other aliens will probably need an illustration:
In one scene, Ruth has just been sexually teasing Joey for two hours, which angers Lenny - he defends his brother's ability to pull women, and says "He's irresistible!" Cue a loud sigh from the front of the stalls as a group of girls chorus "He is!" Needless to say that brought the house down. Actually kudos to Lindsay, Dudgeon and Dyer for not totally corpsing at that point.
The Homecoming by Harold Pinter is booking until the 22nd of March at the Almeida.
Teddy (Neil Dudgeon) returns to his family's North London home after 9 years incommunicado, bringing with him the wife they never knew he had. His father Max is implicitly a former gangster, now a rather toothless dictator of a patriarch, the real strength clearly lying with the middle son, Lenny. Along with Max's fussy, queeny brother Sam (Anthony O'Donnell) and youngest son, dim-witted boxer Joey (Danny Dyer) they fall under the spell of Ruth, the first woman to enter the house since Max's wife died - Ruth develops a mutually parasitic relationship with the family, eventually electing to stay with them even when her own husband leaves.
Michael Attenborough's production has drawn attention because it's the first to cast a black actress as Ruth, which they say was simply colour-blind casting, and indeed Jenny Jules is very good as the magisterial figure ruling the roost practically on a whim; inevitably it does add an extra dimension to the story, particularly when Max accuses his son of marrying beneath him. But for the most part this remains a story more about sexual than racial politics. The infamously sexist elements of the story seemed to me to be more attention-seeking than genuinely-felt, and Ruth certainly seems to be totally in control; as played by Jules I got the impression she had no real intention of going along with the appalling plan she apparently agrees to at the end.
Christopher wasn't convinced by Kenneth Cranham's Max, saying he didn't always find his speech that clear, although I can't say I thought that myself. Nigel Lindsey as Lenny was particularly good with his air of menace. Where I saw a play about power games and gender politics, Christopher was interested in how the story challenges preconceptions about relationships and language (he's particularly interested in Pinter's use of language) but then it wouldn't be Pinter if everyone didn't come out of it with something slightly different. It also wouldn't be Pinter without pauses, and last night was a captioned performance, so on occasion it was quite funny to see the famous pauses appear as ellipses on the screen.
And just as a reminder that theatre's unpredictable: As I said Danny Dyer played Joey, the youngest son. He's fairly well-known over here but Americans and other aliens will probably need an illustration:
In one scene, Ruth has just been sexually teasing Joey for two hours, which angers Lenny - he defends his brother's ability to pull women, and says "He's irresistible!" Cue a loud sigh from the front of the stalls as a group of girls chorus "He is!" Needless to say that brought the house down. Actually kudos to Lindsay, Dudgeon and Dyer for not totally corpsing at that point.
The Homecoming by Harold Pinter is booking until the 22nd of March at the Almeida.