The Homecoming
Encyclopedia
The Homecoming is a two-act play written in 1964 by Nobel laureate
Harold Pinter
and first published in 1965. The original Broadway
production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play
and its 40th-anniversary Broadway production at the Cort Theatre
was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award
for "Best Revival of a Play".
Set in North London, the play has six characters: five men who are related—Max, a retired butcher, and Sam, a chauffeur, who are brothers; and Max's three sons, Teddy, an expatriate American philosophy professor; Lenny, who appears to be a pimp; and Joey, a would-be boxer in training who works in demolition
; and one woman, Ruth, Teddy's wife. The play concerns Teddy's and Ruth's "homecoming," which has distinctly different symbolic and thematic implications. Considering the play while surveying Pinter's career on the occasion of its 40-anniversary production at the Cort Theatre
, in The New Yorker
, the critic John Lahr
writes: "'The Homecoming' changed my life. Before the play, I thought words were just vessels of meaning; after it, I saw them as weapons of defense. Before, I thought theatre was about the spoken; after, I understood the eloquence of the unspoken. The position of a chair, the length of a pause, the choice of a gesture, I realized, could convey volumes" ("Demolition Man").
for several years, Teddy brings his wife, Ruth, home for the first time to meet his working-class family in North London, where he grew up and which she finds more familiar than their arid academic life in America.
Much sexual tension occurs as Ruth teases Teddy's brothers and father and the men taunt one another in an Oedipal
game of oneupmanship, resulting in Ruth's staying behind with Teddy's relatives as "one of the family" and Teddy returning home to America and their three sons without her.
Teddy arrives ("in the middle of the night" [51]) with his wife, Ruth, whom he eventually discloses that he has married, in London, before leaving London for America, where they lived and had three sons together for the six years prior to his returning to the family home to introduce her (Teddy's "homecoming"). Ruth's and Teddy's discomfort with each other, marked by her restless desire to go out exploring after he goes to bed and followed by her sexually suggestive first-time encounter with her brother-in-law Lenny, begins to expose that there are severe problems in the marriage.
Whereas Ruth appeared both listless and restless around Teddy prior to his going up to bed without her, she appears energized by the encounter with Lenny (35–51) and even seems to relish gaining the upper hand over him, taunting him with a "name" his "mother" used ("Leonard" [49]) and then appearing to make him "some kind of proposal" over a clash over a "glass of water": "If you take the glass . . . I'll take you" (50), she threatens. Suggestively "draining the glass" of water, she goes upstairs to bed.
Max, awakened by the voices, comes down (51). Though he has the opportunity to do so, Lenny fails to reveal Teddy's and Ruth's arrival at the house and that they are staying in his old bedroom upstairs and instead engages in more vituperation with Max, as they bait each other, with Lenny asking about his conception, "that night" that his parents went "at it" and Max (in the past a butcher) threatening "You'll drown in your own blood" (52) and spitting at him (53). There is a "blackout", but "Lights UP" leads to "Morning", Max's coming down to make breakfast for the clan and discovering, when Teddy and Ruth appear the next morning—later than they expected, because they "overslept"—that they've been there all night without his knowledge: "I'm a laughing stock. How did you get in? [...] [referring to Ruth] Who asked you to bring dirty tarts into this house?" (57). It takes a bit of explaining, and there is some physical violence between Max and Joey, but finally he understands that Ruth and Teddy have married and that she is his daughter in law, and he offers Teddy a "cuddle," which Teddy tries to accept ("I'm ready for the cuddle") as Max exclaims, "He still loves his father!" (60), and Act One ends.
After Teddy's marriage to Ruth finally receives Max's "blessing" (64–65), Ruth lets her guard down, relaxes, and reveals some facts about her previous life (before she met Teddy and "had all" her "children")—the turning point of the drama (66, 69–70), leading Teddy abruptly to suggest their returning home to America immediately (70). Apparently, he knows something about her past history about which the audience (and his brothers) are just getting an inkling. That life begins to emerge and to become further recognizable to the other men, as soon as brother Lenny initiates dancing with her; he turns her over to brother Joey (said to have a good touch with the ladies), who realizes, "Christ, she's wide open" and that "Old Lenny's got a tart in here" and begins to make out with her on the sofa, stopping to declare Ruth "Just up my street" and "better than a rubdown" (74–76). As Joey "looks up" from his first embrace with Ruth to Teddy and Max (husband and father), Max "looks at the [suit]cases" that Teddy has just brought down, in preparation for their premature and (Teddy seems to expect) imminent departure, slinging an initial barb: "You going. Teddy? Already?"
He continues:
Then he "peers to see RUTH's face under JOEY, turns back to TEDDY" to say:
With comic timing, just at that very point, punctuating the irony of this assessment, "JOEY and RUTH roll off the sofa on to the floor" (76).
Ruth takes command of the men, barks her demands for "something to eat" and "drink" (which they attempt to fulfill), though she questions what they know about "rocks"—literally referring to drinks "on the rocks" with obvious phallic symbolic
implications doubting their "manhood" (Lahr, Casebook 47–48)—as Lenny tries to assure her that their "rocks" are "frozen stiff in the fridge" (77).
Ruth goes upstairs for what they say later turns out to be a "two hour" sexual interlude in bed with Joey, without going "the whole hog" (82); Lenny, the "expert" in such sexual matters, according to the family, labels her a "tease" (82); Joey insists that "sometimes" a man can be "satisfied" without "going any hog," suggesting that Ruth is good at this "game" too.
While Ruth is still upstairs, getting dressed but perhaps not getting ready for their trip back to America (contrary to Teddy's apparently residual expectations), Lenny and the others reminisce about Lenny's and Joey's sexual exploits, riffing on the theme of going "the whole hog," mocking Joey's "bird" requesting "contraception" and his doing whatever he wants without her consent.
By that time most of the "family" members (and the audience) have recognized Ruth to be unhappy in their marriage—except perhaps Teddy, who keeps insisting that she simply needs to "rest" but does, nevertheless, appear willing to leave her there, and Sam:
Appearing to ignore this reply, Max gets the idea for the scheme that leads to "Ruth's homecoming" and the denouement of the play (86–98):
Lenny picks up on Max's idea: "you mean put her on the game" (prostitution). They expand on the notion of "inviting" Ruth to live with them, while she works part-time as a prostitute in considerable detail. For example. they consider Ruth's becoming a call girl with names like "Spanish Jacky" or "something nice . . . like Cynthia . . . or Gillian" (90). Their own "game" ("You mean put her on the game?" [99]), as they try to get back at Teddy, appears to have taken over their imaginations and they seem even to convince themselves of what at first appears absurd. It is hard to know whether or not they are serious or, as Max says to Teddy, "We're laughing" (87)—just joking (it seems, at first) at Teddy's expense: "What about you, Ted? How much you going to put in the kitty?" (87). They go so far as to ask Teddy if he can hand out "discreet" business cards (90) to his American colleagues, who might "pop over here for a week at the Savoy" and "need somewhere they can go to have a nice quiet poke," suggesting that "of course you'd be in a position to give them inside information" (90)—Will she "put out" or will she "tease" the other men as they perceive she did Joey?—in effect making him an accomplice in pimping his own wife.
Ruth comes downstairs "dressed" and presumably ready to join Teddy, who is still waiting with his coat on and their packed suitcases. In the interim, after telling her it was time to leave and sending her upstairs to pack and dress for the trip, he has come downstairs first and overheard and even joined in his brothers' and his father's plan, which they had launched while the couple was upstairs.
Teddy informs his wife, "Ruth . . . the family have invited you to stay, for a little while longer. As a . . . as a kind of guest. If you like the idea I don't mind. We can manage very easily at home . . . until you come back" (91), his pause suggesting that her return to America is dubious, even to him.
"Or," he tells her, without enthusiasm or conviction, to no response, "you can come home with me" (92). Ruth responds only to Lenny's jumping in immediately with a more-attractive (to Ruth) alternate proposal: "We'd get you a flat."
"A flat?" she asks (92), indicating that interests her more than returning to America with her husband, since she does not respond to Teddy's bland suggestion at all. The reply suggests that she wants to hear more.
She goes on to negotiate a "workable" business "employment" arrangement ("contract") for herself: "All aspects of the agreement and conditions of employment would have to be clarified to our mutual satisfaction before we finalized the contract," she tells them (92–93), ignoring Max's and Lenny's subsequent reminder that she would have to do some cooking and cleaning (94), and, as Teddy has already put it, "pull your weight a little" because "my father is not financially well off" (91). Ruth expresses, apparently sympathetically, how "sorry" she is to hear that.
Whatever its initial motivations, Ruth chooses to take "the family's" invitation seriously and to accept it, either actually or as a temporarily convenient way to leave Teddy.
As Teddy leaves without Ruth, to return to America and their three sons, Ruth says "Eddie. Don't become a stranger" (96). Use of the unfamiliar nickname Eddie may connote that he has already become a stranger to her; that they are, as the play depicts from their entrance, an "estranged" couple.
Sam is still lying on the stage at their feet, having "collapsed" (or "croaked") after blurting out the secret about Jessie and Mac (94): "MacGregor had Jessie in the back of my cab as I drove them along" (94):
After acknowledging the possibility that he has died and the inconvenience that would pose for them, they mostly ignore him:
After that, Teddy, who has been silent throughout that exchange, expresses only some chagrin that he has lost his possible ride to the airport: "I was going to ask him to drive me to London airport" (95).
Ruth appears to have the power as the men appear to be meeting her demands, with Max, who by then has apparently realized that she may have gotten the upper hand in their negotiation (91–94), fearing that she might "do the dirty" on them after accepting the family's "invitation" to "stay on" under her "conditions" (95-96).
The final tableau vivant
(96-98) depicts Ruth sitting, "relaxed in her chair," as if on a throne, with Sam lying "still" on the floor, Joey, who has walked "slowly" across the stage over to her, placing his "head in her lap," and Lenny, who "stands still," looking on. After repeatedly insisting "I'm not such an old man," worrying that Ruth might not "understand" "What . . . what . . . what . . . we're getting at? What . . . we've got in mind?", and repeating "I'm not an old man," getting no reply from Ruth, who remains silent, Max beseeches her, "Kiss me"—the final words of the play—as Ruth just sits and "continues to touch JOEY's head, lightly", while Lenny still "stands, watching" (98). In this "resolution" of the play (its dénouement), what might happen later remains unresolved. Such lack of plot resolution and other ambiguities
characterize most of Pinter's dramas (Merritt, Pinter in Play 1–4, 66–86, and throughout).
By the end of the play, Ruth appears to have assumed the multiple roles of Jessie, the London family's missing wife and mother, the missing woman in their household ("mother/wife/whore"), while putting the American family of Ruth and Teddy in a parallel position, reversing the situation at the beginning of the play. In that sense, the play recalls Edward's reversal of roles with the silent Matchseller in Pinter's 1959 play A Slight Ache
, initially broadcast on BBC Radio 3
, and similarly ironic plot and character role-reversals resulting from power struggles throughout many of Pinter's other plays (Merritt, Pinter in Play 101; Batty, About Pinter 39–41).
For many critics the missing wall in the house, "removed" after Jessie's death, symbolises the absent female influence. After Teddy "comes home" with his wife, Ruth, Max invites her to remain in London. She agrees, in effect, to "come home" as the family's missing mother figure and possibly also a prostitute whom Lenny can pimp, hence filling in the gap created when "their mother died": "I've never had a whore under this roof before. Ever since your mother died" (58). Upon first seeing Ruth, Max believes that his eldest son, Teddy, has brought a "filthy scrubber" (like Jessie) into "my house" (57–58). A major irony of the play is that Max's apparent mistaken first assumption comes to appear accurate as they (and the audience) get to "know" Ruth better (65–76).
Pinter's "Homecoming" is considered to be one of the best plays in Absurdist Theatre as it has been revived many times since its first premiere in London.
Brantley and other contemporary critics now often regard as "perfection" the two-act plot structure of The Homecoming. But, in the 1960s, the play's earliest critics complained that it (like Pinter's other plays) was "plotless", as well as "meaningless" and "emotionless" (lacking character motivation), finding the play "puzzling" and not "understanding" that it might have a multiplicity of potential "meanings".
Lahr considers The Homecoming to be
The Homecoming directly challenges the place of "morals" in family life and puts their social value "under erasure" (in Derridean terms). Teddy's profession as an academic philosopher, which, he claims, enables him to "maintain . . . intellectual equilibrium"—
ironically raises basic philosophical questions about the nature of so-called "family values" and the "meaning" of "love" among family members (Lahr, Casebook; Merritt, Pinter in Play 90, 95–96, 194–96).
Occasionally, one finds critics of the play, aware of Pinter's reputation for ambiguity, questioning even Teddy's and Ruth's references to the fact of their "being married"; e.g., Sir Harold Hobson
, as cited by Merritt (Pinter in Play 221–25): "Hobson's interpretation of Teddy as merely pretending to be Ruth's husband and a professor of philosophy enables him to rationalize the man's behavior toward his wife"; basing her viewpoint on a personal interview with Hobson, Merritt considers Hobson's review of the first production of the play, entitled "Pinter Minus the Moral", concluding: "although Hobson still describes The Homecoming as Pinter's 'cleverest play,' his judgment against the play's 'moral vacuum,' like his denial of Teddy and Ruth's marriage, suggests his personal distress at the portrayal of marriage and what Pinter has called the characters' misdirected 'love.' " (224). To deny that Teddy and Ruth are really married is a common refrain in responses to the play. Aside from their behavior in the play and that of Teddy's father and brothers toward them, nothing else in the text contradicts Teddy's and Ruth's claims that they are married and that they have three sons. The more outrageous Ruth's and his family's actions, the more Teddy protests that they are married, leading some critics to believe that the man doth protest too much, though perhaps they may do so too (Merritt, Pinter in Play 221–25).
Continuing denial of the facts of Teddy's and Ruth's marriage and family may serve critics as a means of expressing their own rejection of what occurs in the play. Alluding indirectly to this critical pattern, Brantley observes, however, that, in time, the play may appear more realistic and more relevant to the lives of theater audiences than it may have seemed when they themselves were younger or more naive about the nature of marriage and family life. To those with strong religious values, like Hobson, the play appears immoral. Yet, to others, its moral value resides in its very questioning of commonly accepted shibboleths about marriage and the family: "People who were originally put off by 'The Homecoming' may now find it too close to home. It's a bit like Picasso
's shockingly severe painting of Gertrude Stein
from 1906, the one he predicted in time would resemble its subject. We may not have thought we saw ourselves in 'The Homecoming' four decades ago. Now it feels like a mirror" (Brantley, "Theater Review: The Homecoming [Cort Theater]": E7). Other critics, like Lahr, remind their readers of the strong element of comedy
in this play, as in many of Pinter's other plays ("Demolition Man").
, where according to theatre critic John Lahr
, "the magnificent barrenness of the play’s North London setting was imagined as he sat at his writing desk overlooking gardens, within earshot of the sea." Pinter remarked that "it kind of wrote itself".
Pinter's close friend and former schoolteacher, Joseph Brearley, was visiting Pinter after he had written the play. “I gave him the play to read,” Pinter recalled. “I waited in another room. About two hours later, I heard the front door slam. I thought, Well, here we are. He doesn’t like it. About an hour later, the doorbell rang. I answered it. He said, ‘I had to get some air.’ He said, ‘It is your best.’ ”
s: the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
(Paul Rogers
), the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
(Ian Holm
), the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play
(Peter Hall), and the Tony Award for Best Play
(Alexander H. Cohen
, prod.). A film of the play, also entitled The Homecoming
and also directed by Peter Hall, was released in 1973; part of the two-season subscription series American Film Theatre
in the United States, it is available on both VHS
and DVD
and distributed by Kino on Video ("Collection Two" [DVD box set]).
London première
Royal Shakespeare Company
. Dir. Peter Hall. With Paul Rogers
(Max), Ian Holm
(Lenny), John Normington
(Sam), Terence Rigby
(Joey), Michael Bryant
(Teddy), and Vivien Merchant
(Ruth). Aldwych Theatre
, London. Opened on 3 June 1965. (Lahr, Casebook n. pag. [x])
New York première
"The first American production opened at The Music Box
on January 5, 1967. With the exception of the part of Teddy, which was played by Michael Craig
, the cast was as above" (Lahr, Casebook n. pag. [x]).
Radio broadcast
On 18 March 2007, BBC Radio 3
broadcast a new radio production of The Homecoming, directed by Thea Sharrock
and produced by Martin J. Smith, with Pinter performing the role of Max (for the first time; he had previously played Lenny on stage in the 1960s), Michael Gambon
as Max's brother Sam, Rupert Graves
as Teddy, Samuel West
as Lenny, James Alexandrou
as Joey, and Gina McKee
as Ruth (Martin J. Smith; West).
Broadway revival
The Tony Award
-nominated 40th-anniversary Broadway
revival of The Homecoming, starring James Frain
as Teddy, Ian McShane
as Max, Raul Esparza
as Lenny, Michael McKean
as Sam, Eve Best
as Ruth, and Gareth Saxe as Joey, and directed by Daniel Sullivan, opened on 16 December 2007, for a "20-week limited engagement" through 13 April 2008, at the Cort Theatre
. It received Tony Award
nominations for Best Revival of a Play
, Best Actress in a Play
(Eve Best) and Best Featured Actor in a Play (Raul Esparza). It also received the Drama Desk Award
for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.
Almeida revival
The Homecoming was also revived at the Almeida Theatre
in Islington, London, from 31 January through 22 March 2008. The cast included Kenneth Cranham
, Neil Dudgeon
, Danny Dyer
, Jenny Jules
, and Nigel Lindsay
.
Others
Other recent and "upcoming events" (updated periodically), including many past, current, and future productions of The Homecoming, are listed on the home page of Pinter's official website and through its lefthand menu of links to the "Calendar" ("Worldwide Calendar").
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
and first published in 1965. The original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play
21st Tony Awards
The 21st Annual Tony Awards ceremony was broadcast on March 26, 1967, from the Shubert Theatre in New York City on the ABC Television network. This was the Awards ceremony's inaugural broadcast on U.S. network television. The hosts were Mary Martin and Robert Preston...
and its 40th-anniversary Broadway production at the Cort Theatre
Cort Theatre
The Cort Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 138 West 48th Street in the Theatre District of midtown Manhattan in New York City...
was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award
62nd Tony Awards
The 62nd Tony Awards ceremony was held on June 15, 2008. The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live American theatre. CBS television broadcast the event from Radio City Music Hall in New York City as it has since...
for "Best Revival of a Play".
Set in North London, the play has six characters: five men who are related—Max, a retired butcher, and Sam, a chauffeur, who are brothers; and Max's three sons, Teddy, an expatriate American philosophy professor; Lenny, who appears to be a pimp; and Joey, a would-be boxer in training who works in demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
; and one woman, Ruth, Teddy's wife. The play concerns Teddy's and Ruth's "homecoming," which has distinctly different symbolic and thematic implications. Considering the play while surveying Pinter's career on the occasion of its 40-anniversary production at the Cort Theatre
Cort Theatre
The Cort Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 138 West 48th Street in the Theatre District of midtown Manhattan in New York City...
, in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, the critic John Lahr
John Lahr
John Lahr is an American theater critic, and the son of actor Bert Lahr. Since 1992, he has been the senior drama critic at The New Yorker magazine.-Biography:...
writes: "'The Homecoming' changed my life. Before the play, I thought words were just vessels of meaning; after it, I saw them as weapons of defense. Before, I thought theatre was about the spoken; after, I understood the eloquence of the unspoken. The position of a chair, the length of a pause, the choice of a gesture, I realized, could convey volumes" ("Demolition Man").
Characters
- MAX, a man of seventy
- LENNY, a man in his early thirties
- SAM, a man of sixty-three
- JOEY, a man in his middle twenties
- TEDDY, a man in his middle thirties
- RUTH, a woman in her early thirties
Setting
Pinter's text of The Homecoming describes the setting for the play as follows:Plot
After having lived in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for several years, Teddy brings his wife, Ruth, home for the first time to meet his working-class family in North London, where he grew up and which she finds more familiar than their arid academic life in America.
Much sexual tension occurs as Ruth teases Teddy's brothers and father and the men taunt one another in an Oedipal
Oedipus complex
In psychoanalytic theory, the term Oedipus complex denotes the emotions and ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious, via dynamic repression, that concentrate upon a boy’s desire to sexually possess his mother, and kill his father...
game of oneupmanship, resulting in Ruth's staying behind with Teddy's relatives as "one of the family" and Teddy returning home to America and their three sons without her.
Act one
The play begins in the midst of what becomes an ongoing power struggle between the two more dominant men, the father, Max, and his middle son, Lenny, obvious from their initial exchange: "What have you done with the scissors? ... Why don't you shut up, you daft prat?" (23). Max and the other men put down one another, expressing their "feelings of resentment," with Max feminizing his brother Sam, while, ironically, himself claiming to have "given birth to three grown men! All on my own bat": "What have you done? [Pause.] What have you done, you tit?" (55–56). Lenny and Max spar over who knows more about "the horses", particularly the "fillies"; Max claims that he does—"And he talks to me about horses" (25–26); Max's "dog cooking"; and his liking "tucking up his sons" (33). Max mocks Sam's inability to find his own "bride" (31–32), suggesting, abusively, that his brother is a homosexual: "it's funny you never got married, isn't it? A man with all your gifts.[...] A man like you" (30); "What you been doing, banging away at your lady customers, have you?" (30); "You leave it to others? What others? You paralysed prat! [...] What other people?" (31); "you bitch" (32); "You tit" (56); "Anyone could have you at the same time. You'd bend over for half a dollar on Blackfriar's Bridge" (64). He responds to his sons' complaints about his cooking with: "Go find yourself a mother" (32).Teddy arrives ("in the middle of the night" [51]) with his wife, Ruth, whom he eventually discloses that he has married, in London, before leaving London for America, where they lived and had three sons together for the six years prior to his returning to the family home to introduce her (Teddy's "homecoming"). Ruth's and Teddy's discomfort with each other, marked by her restless desire to go out exploring after he goes to bed and followed by her sexually suggestive first-time encounter with her brother-in-law Lenny, begins to expose that there are severe problems in the marriage.
Whereas Ruth appeared both listless and restless around Teddy prior to his going up to bed without her, she appears energized by the encounter with Lenny (35–51) and even seems to relish gaining the upper hand over him, taunting him with a "name" his "mother" used ("Leonard" [49]) and then appearing to make him "some kind of proposal" over a clash over a "glass of water": "If you take the glass . . . I'll take you" (50), she threatens. Suggestively "draining the glass" of water, she goes upstairs to bed.
Max, awakened by the voices, comes down (51). Though he has the opportunity to do so, Lenny fails to reveal Teddy's and Ruth's arrival at the house and that they are staying in his old bedroom upstairs and instead engages in more vituperation with Max, as they bait each other, with Lenny asking about his conception, "that night" that his parents went "at it" and Max (in the past a butcher) threatening "You'll drown in your own blood" (52) and spitting at him (53). There is a "blackout", but "Lights UP" leads to "Morning", Max's coming down to make breakfast for the clan and discovering, when Teddy and Ruth appear the next morning—later than they expected, because they "overslept"—that they've been there all night without his knowledge: "I'm a laughing stock. How did you get in? [...] [referring to Ruth] Who asked you to bring dirty tarts into this house?" (57). It takes a bit of explaining, and there is some physical violence between Max and Joey, but finally he understands that Ruth and Teddy have married and that she is his daughter in law, and he offers Teddy a "cuddle," which Teddy tries to accept ("I'm ready for the cuddle") as Max exclaims, "He still loves his father!" (60), and Act One ends.
Act two
This act begins (61) with the men's ritual of sharing the lighting of cigars (choreographed in Hall's stage productions and film), ending with Teddy's cigar going out, prematurely and symbolically (Lahr, Casebook 47–48). That is followed by Max's sentimental series of reminiscences of family life with Jessie and the "boys" and his experiences as a butcher with what he describes first as "a top-class group of butchers with continental connections" and then reveals that "They turned out to be a bunch of criminals like everyone else"; with that sour acknowledgment, he also decides "This is a lousy cigar" and "stubs it out" (62–63).After Teddy's marriage to Ruth finally receives Max's "blessing" (64–65), Ruth lets her guard down, relaxes, and reveals some facts about her previous life (before she met Teddy and "had all" her "children")—the turning point of the drama (66, 69–70), leading Teddy abruptly to suggest their returning home to America immediately (70). Apparently, he knows something about her past history about which the audience (and his brothers) are just getting an inkling. That life begins to emerge and to become further recognizable to the other men, as soon as brother Lenny initiates dancing with her; he turns her over to brother Joey (said to have a good touch with the ladies), who realizes, "Christ, she's wide open" and that "Old Lenny's got a tart in here" and begins to make out with her on the sofa, stopping to declare Ruth "Just up my street" and "better than a rubdown" (74–76). As Joey "looks up" from his first embrace with Ruth to Teddy and Max (husband and father), Max "looks at the [suit]cases" that Teddy has just brought down, in preparation for their premature and (Teddy seems to expect) imminent departure, slinging an initial barb: "You going. Teddy? Already?"
He continues:
Then he "peers to see RUTH's face under JOEY, turns back to TEDDY" to say:
With comic timing, just at that very point, punctuating the irony of this assessment, "JOEY and RUTH roll off the sofa on to the floor" (76).
Ruth takes command of the men, barks her demands for "something to eat" and "drink" (which they attempt to fulfill), though she questions what they know about "rocks"—literally referring to drinks "on the rocks" with obvious phallic symbolic
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
implications doubting their "manhood" (Lahr, Casebook 47–48)—as Lenny tries to assure her that their "rocks" are "frozen stiff in the fridge" (77).
Ruth goes upstairs for what they say later turns out to be a "two hour" sexual interlude in bed with Joey, without going "the whole hog" (82); Lenny, the "expert" in such sexual matters, according to the family, labels her a "tease" (82); Joey insists that "sometimes" a man can be "satisfied" without "going any hog," suggesting that Ruth is good at this "game" too.
While Ruth is still upstairs, getting dressed but perhaps not getting ready for their trip back to America (contrary to Teddy's apparently residual expectations), Lenny and the others reminisce about Lenny's and Joey's sexual exploits, riffing on the theme of going "the whole hog," mocking Joey's "bird" requesting "contraception" and his doing whatever he wants without her consent.
By that time most of the "family" members (and the audience) have recognized Ruth to be unhappy in their marriage—except perhaps Teddy, who keeps insisting that she simply needs to "rest" but does, nevertheless, appear willing to leave her there, and Sam:
Appearing to ignore this reply, Max gets the idea for the scheme that leads to "Ruth's homecoming" and the denouement of the play (86–98):
- MAX walks about the room, clicks his fingers.
Lenny picks up on Max's idea: "you mean put her on the game" (prostitution). They expand on the notion of "inviting" Ruth to live with them, while she works part-time as a prostitute in considerable detail. For example. they consider Ruth's becoming a call girl with names like "Spanish Jacky" or "something nice . . . like Cynthia . . . or Gillian" (90). Their own "game" ("You mean put her on the game?" [99]), as they try to get back at Teddy, appears to have taken over their imaginations and they seem even to convince themselves of what at first appears absurd. It is hard to know whether or not they are serious or, as Max says to Teddy, "We're laughing" (87)—just joking (it seems, at first) at Teddy's expense: "What about you, Ted? How much you going to put in the kitty?" (87). They go so far as to ask Teddy if he can hand out "discreet" business cards (90) to his American colleagues, who might "pop over here for a week at the Savoy" and "need somewhere they can go to have a nice quiet poke," suggesting that "of course you'd be in a position to give them inside information" (90)—Will she "put out" or will she "tease" the other men as they perceive she did Joey?—in effect making him an accomplice in pimping his own wife.
Ruth comes downstairs "dressed" and presumably ready to join Teddy, who is still waiting with his coat on and their packed suitcases. In the interim, after telling her it was time to leave and sending her upstairs to pack and dress for the trip, he has come downstairs first and overheard and even joined in his brothers' and his father's plan, which they had launched while the couple was upstairs.
Teddy informs his wife, "Ruth . . . the family have invited you to stay, for a little while longer. As a . . . as a kind of guest. If you like the idea I don't mind. We can manage very easily at home . . . until you come back" (91), his pause suggesting that her return to America is dubious, even to him.
"Or," he tells her, without enthusiasm or conviction, to no response, "you can come home with me" (92). Ruth responds only to Lenny's jumping in immediately with a more-attractive (to Ruth) alternate proposal: "We'd get you a flat."
"A flat?" she asks (92), indicating that interests her more than returning to America with her husband, since she does not respond to Teddy's bland suggestion at all. The reply suggests that she wants to hear more.
She goes on to negotiate a "workable" business "employment" arrangement ("contract") for herself: "All aspects of the agreement and conditions of employment would have to be clarified to our mutual satisfaction before we finalized the contract," she tells them (92–93), ignoring Max's and Lenny's subsequent reminder that she would have to do some cooking and cleaning (94), and, as Teddy has already put it, "pull your weight a little" because "my father is not financially well off" (91). Ruth expresses, apparently sympathetically, how "sorry" she is to hear that.
Whatever its initial motivations, Ruth chooses to take "the family's" invitation seriously and to accept it, either actually or as a temporarily convenient way to leave Teddy.
As Teddy leaves without Ruth, to return to America and their three sons, Ruth says "Eddie. Don't become a stranger" (96). Use of the unfamiliar nickname Eddie may connote that he has already become a stranger to her; that they are, as the play depicts from their entrance, an "estranged" couple.
Sam is still lying on the stage at their feet, having "collapsed" (or "croaked") after blurting out the secret about Jessie and Mac (94): "MacGregor had Jessie in the back of my cab as I drove them along" (94):
After acknowledging the possibility that he has died and the inconvenience that would pose for them, they mostly ignore him:
After that, Teddy, who has been silent throughout that exchange, expresses only some chagrin that he has lost his possible ride to the airport: "I was going to ask him to drive me to London airport" (95).
Ruth appears to have the power as the men appear to be meeting her demands, with Max, who by then has apparently realized that she may have gotten the upper hand in their negotiation (91–94), fearing that she might "do the dirty" on them after accepting the family's "invitation" to "stay on" under her "conditions" (95-96).
The final tableau vivant
Tableau vivant
Tableau vivant is French for "living picture." The term describes a striking group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models, carefully posed and often theatrically lit. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move...
(96-98) depicts Ruth sitting, "relaxed in her chair," as if on a throne, with Sam lying "still" on the floor, Joey, who has walked "slowly" across the stage over to her, placing his "head in her lap," and Lenny, who "stands still," looking on. After repeatedly insisting "I'm not such an old man," worrying that Ruth might not "understand" "What . . . what . . . what . . . we're getting at? What . . . we've got in mind?", and repeating "I'm not an old man," getting no reply from Ruth, who remains silent, Max beseeches her, "Kiss me"—the final words of the play—as Ruth just sits and "continues to touch JOEY's head, lightly", while Lenny still "stands, watching" (98). In this "resolution" of the play (its dénouement), what might happen later remains unresolved. Such lack of plot resolution and other ambiguities
Ambiguity
Ambiguity of words or phrases is the ability to express more than one interpretation. It is distinct from vagueness, which is a statement about the lack of precision contained or available in the information.Context may play a role in resolving ambiguity...
characterize most of Pinter's dramas (Merritt, Pinter in Play 1–4, 66–86, and throughout).
Symbolism and irony of title
In addition to the play being about Teddy's "homecoming," its ending suggests that another symbolic homecoming on a variety of levels is Ruth's. Symbolically, Ruth comes "home" to "herself" (rediscovers her previous identity prior to her marriage to Teddy) and to this woman-less (motherless, wifeless, sister-in-lawless) family (Max, Lenny, Joey, and Sam), ironically, in the process, rendering her own family with Teddy similarly without (mother, wife, woman).By the end of the play, Ruth appears to have assumed the multiple roles of Jessie, the London family's missing wife and mother, the missing woman in their household ("mother/wife/whore"), while putting the American family of Ruth and Teddy in a parallel position, reversing the situation at the beginning of the play. In that sense, the play recalls Edward's reversal of roles with the silent Matchseller in Pinter's 1959 play A Slight Ache
A Slight Ache
A Slight Ache is a tragicomic play written by Harold Pinter in 1958 and first published by Methuen in London in 1961. It concerns a married couple's dreams and desires, focusing mostly on the husband's fears of the unknown, of growing old, and of the "Other" as a threat to his...
, initially broadcast on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
, and similarly ironic plot and character role-reversals resulting from power struggles throughout many of Pinter's other plays (Merritt, Pinter in Play 101; Batty, About Pinter 39–41).
For many critics the missing wall in the house, "removed" after Jessie's death, symbolises the absent female influence. After Teddy "comes home" with his wife, Ruth, Max invites her to remain in London. She agrees, in effect, to "come home" as the family's missing mother figure and possibly also a prostitute whom Lenny can pimp, hence filling in the gap created when "their mother died": "I've never had a whore under this roof before. Ever since your mother died" (58). Upon first seeing Ruth, Max believes that his eldest son, Teddy, has brought a "filthy scrubber" (like Jessie) into "my house" (57–58). A major irony of the play is that Max's apparent mistaken first assumption comes to appear accurate as they (and the audience) get to "know" Ruth better (65–76).
Pinter's "Homecoming" is considered to be one of the best plays in Absurdist Theatre as it has been revived many times since its first premiere in London.
Critical response
A highly ambiguous, enigmatic, and (for some) even cryptic play, The Homecoming has been the subject of extensive critical debate for over forty years. According to many critics, it exposes issues of sex and violence in a highly realistic yet aesthetically stylized manner.Brantley and other contemporary critics now often regard as "perfection" the two-act plot structure of The Homecoming. But, in the 1960s, the play's earliest critics complained that it (like Pinter's other plays) was "plotless", as well as "meaningless" and "emotionless" (lacking character motivation), finding the play "puzzling" and not "understanding" that it might have a multiplicity of potential "meanings".
Lahr considers The Homecoming to be
The Homecoming directly challenges the place of "morals" in family life and puts their social value "under erasure" (in Derridean terms). Teddy's profession as an academic philosopher, which, he claims, enables him to "maintain . . . intellectual equilibrium"—
ironically raises basic philosophical questions about the nature of so-called "family values" and the "meaning" of "love" among family members (Lahr, Casebook; Merritt, Pinter in Play 90, 95–96, 194–96).
Occasionally, one finds critics of the play, aware of Pinter's reputation for ambiguity, questioning even Teddy's and Ruth's references to the fact of their "being married"; e.g., Sir Harold Hobson
Harold Hobson
Sir Harold Hobson was an influential English drama critic and author.He was born in Thorpe Hesley near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England and read History at Oxford University. He was an assistant literary editor for the Sunday Times from 1944 and later became its drama critic...
, as cited by Merritt (Pinter in Play 221–25): "Hobson's interpretation of Teddy as merely pretending to be Ruth's husband and a professor of philosophy enables him to rationalize the man's behavior toward his wife"; basing her viewpoint on a personal interview with Hobson, Merritt considers Hobson's review of the first production of the play, entitled "Pinter Minus the Moral", concluding: "although Hobson still describes The Homecoming as Pinter's 'cleverest play,' his judgment against the play's 'moral vacuum,' like his denial of Teddy and Ruth's marriage, suggests his personal distress at the portrayal of marriage and what Pinter has called the characters' misdirected 'love.' " (224). To deny that Teddy and Ruth are really married is a common refrain in responses to the play. Aside from their behavior in the play and that of Teddy's father and brothers toward them, nothing else in the text contradicts Teddy's and Ruth's claims that they are married and that they have three sons. The more outrageous Ruth's and his family's actions, the more Teddy protests that they are married, leading some critics to believe that the man doth protest too much, though perhaps they may do so too (Merritt, Pinter in Play 221–25).
Continuing denial of the facts of Teddy's and Ruth's marriage and family may serve critics as a means of expressing their own rejection of what occurs in the play. Alluding indirectly to this critical pattern, Brantley observes, however, that, in time, the play may appear more realistic and more relevant to the lives of theater audiences than it may have seemed when they themselves were younger or more naive about the nature of marriage and family life. To those with strong religious values, like Hobson, the play appears immoral. Yet, to others, its moral value resides in its very questioning of commonly accepted shibboleths about marriage and the family: "People who were originally put off by 'The Homecoming' may now find it too close to home. It's a bit like Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
's shockingly severe painting of Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
from 1906, the one he predicted in time would resemble its subject. We may not have thought we saw ourselves in 'The Homecoming' four decades ago. Now it feels like a mirror" (Brantley, "Theater Review: The Homecoming [Cort Theater]": E7). Other critics, like Lahr, remind their readers of the strong element of comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
in this play, as in many of Pinter's other plays ("Demolition Man").
Composition history
Pinter wrote The Homecoming in six weeks in 1964 from his home in the Sussex coastal town of WorthingWorthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, where according to theatre critic John Lahr
John Lahr
John Lahr is an American theater critic, and the son of actor Bert Lahr. Since 1992, he has been the senior drama critic at The New Yorker magazine.-Biography:...
, "the magnificent barrenness of the play’s North London setting was imagined as he sat at his writing desk overlooking gardens, within earshot of the sea." Pinter remarked that "it kind of wrote itself".
Pinter's close friend and former schoolteacher, Joseph Brearley, was visiting Pinter after he had written the play. “I gave him the play to read,” Pinter recalled. “I waited in another room. About two hours later, I heard the front door slam. I thought, Well, here we are. He doesn’t like it. About an hour later, the doorbell rang. I answered it. He said, ‘I had to get some air.’ He said, ‘It is your best.’ ”
Production history
Productions of the play have won major theater awards. For example, the 1967 New York production received four Tony AwardTony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
s: the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play presented since 1947, is awarded to actors in productions of new or revival plays.-1940s:*1947 - José Ferrer – Cyrano de Bergerac / Fredric March – Years Ago...
(Paul Rogers
Paul Rogers (actor)
Paul Rogers is an English actor of film, stage and television.Rogers was born in Plympton, Devon, England, and later trained at the Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington Hall and made his film debut in 1932...
), the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. The award has been presented since 1949.-1950s:* 1951: Eli Wallach – The Rose Tattoo* 1952: John Cromwell – Point of No Return...
(Ian Holm
Ian Holm
Sir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear...
), the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play
Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play
The Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play has been given since 1960. Before 1960 there was only one award for both play direction and musical direction, then in 1960 the award was split into two categories: Dramatic and Musical. In 1976 the Dramatic category was renamed to Play...
(Peter Hall), and the Tony Award for Best Play
Tony Award for Best Play
The Tony Award for Best Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theatre, including musical theatre, honoring productions on Broadway in New York. It currently takes place in mid-June each year.There was no award in the Tony's first year...
(Alexander H. Cohen
Alexander H. Cohen
Alexander H. Cohen was a prolific American theatrical producer who mounted more than one hundred productions on both sides of the Atlantic. He was the only American producer to maintain offices in the West End as well as on Broadway.-Personal life:Cohen was born in New York City...
, prod.). A film of the play, also entitled The Homecoming
The Homecoming (film)
The Homecoming is a 1973 film directed by Peter Hall based on the play of the same name by Harold Pinter. The film was screened at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition.-Plot:...
and also directed by Peter Hall, was released in 1973; part of the two-season subscription series American Film Theatre
American Film Theatre
The American Film Theatre was a limited run series of film adaptations of stage plays, produced by Ely Landau. Two seasons were produced from 1973 to 1975...
in the United States, it is available on both VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and distributed by Kino on Video ("Collection Two" [DVD box set]).
List of selected productions
- See also Harold Pinter#Since 2005
London première
Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
. Dir. Peter Hall. With Paul Rogers
Paul Rogers (actor)
Paul Rogers is an English actor of film, stage and television.Rogers was born in Plympton, Devon, England, and later trained at the Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington Hall and made his film debut in 1932...
(Max), Ian Holm
Ian Holm
Sir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear...
(Lenny), John Normington
John Normington
John Normington was an English actor who appeared widely on British television from the 1960s until the year of his death. Normington was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing in more than 20 RSC productions...
(Sam), Terence Rigby
Terence Rigby
Terence Christopher Rigby was an English actor with a number of film and television credits to his name. In the 1970s he was well-known as police dog-handler PC Snow in the long-running series Softly, Softly: Taskforce...
(Joey), Michael Bryant
Michael Bryant (actor)
Michael Dennis Bryant was a British stage and television actor.-Biography:Bryant attended Battersea Grammar School and after service in the Merchant Navy and Army, he attended drama school and appeared in many productions on the London stage. He made his film debut in 1955...
(Teddy), and Vivien Merchant
Vivien Merchant
Vivien Merchant was a British actress.-Career:Merchant performed in many stage productions and several films, including Alfie and Frenzy...
(Ruth). Aldwych Theatre
Aldwych Theatre
The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200.-Origins:...
, London. Opened on 3 June 1965. (Lahr, Casebook n. pag. [x])
New York première
"The first American production opened at The Music Box
Music Box Theatre
The Music Box Theater is a Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan.The once most aptly named theater on Broadway, the intimate Music Box was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and constructed by composer Irving Berlin and producer Sam H. Harris specifically to...
on January 5, 1967. With the exception of the part of Teddy, which was played by Michael Craig
Michael Craig (actor)
Michael Craig is a British actor, known for his work in film and television in both the United Kingdom and Australia. Craig was born in Poona, Maharashtra, British India, the son of Donald Gregson, a captain in the 3rd Indian Cavalry. He came to England with his family when aged three, and went to...
, the cast was as above" (Lahr, Casebook n. pag. [x]).
Radio broadcast
On 18 March 2007, BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
broadcast a new radio production of The Homecoming, directed by Thea Sharrock
Thea Sharrock
Thea Sharrock is an award-winning English theatre director. In 2001, when at age 24 she became artistic director of London's Southwark Playhouse, she was the youngest artistic director in British theatre....
and produced by Martin J. Smith, with Pinter performing the role of Max (for the first time; he had previously played Lenny on stage in the 1960s), Michael Gambon
Michael Gambon
Sir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...
as Max's brother Sam, Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as DI Lestrade in the critically acclaimed television series Sherlock.-Early life:...
as Teddy, Samuel West
Samuel West
Samuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in Howards End and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ENRON...
as Lenny, James Alexandrou
James Alexandrou
James Alekos Alexandrou is an English actor of Greek Cypriot descent, best known for playing Martin Fowler in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders.-Early life:...
as Joey, and Gina McKee
Gina McKee
Georgina "Gina" McKee is an English actor known for her television roles in Our Friends in the North , The Lost Prince and The Forsyte Saga ; and her portrayal of Bella in the film Notting Hill ....
as Ruth (Martin J. Smith; West).
Broadway revival
The Tony Award
62nd Tony Awards
The 62nd Tony Awards ceremony was held on June 15, 2008. The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live American theatre. CBS television broadcast the event from Radio City Music Hall in New York City as it has since...
-nominated 40th-anniversary Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
revival of The Homecoming, starring James Frain
James Frain
James Dominic Frain is an English stage and screen actor. He is possibly best known for his role in the Showtime series The Tudors in which he appeared as Thomas Cromwell from 2007 to 2009, and for his role as vampire Franklin Mott in season three of the HBO drama True Blood, as well as his role...
as Teddy, Ian McShane
Ian McShane
Ian David McShane is an English actor, director, producer, voice artist, and comedian.Despite appearing in numerous films, McShane is best known for his television roles, particularly the BBC's Lovejoy and HBO's Western drama Deadwood...
as Max, Raul Esparza
Raúl Esparza
Raúl Eduardo Esparza is an American stage actor, singer, and voice artist noted for his award winning performances in Broadway shows...
as Lenny, Michael McKean
Michael McKean
Michael John McKean is an American actor, comedian, writer, composer and musician, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Squiggy's friend, Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski, on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley; and for his work in the Christopher Guest ensemble films, particularly as David St...
as Sam, Eve Best
Eve Best
Eve Best is an English actress, best known for her roles as Dr. O'Hara in the Showtime television series Nurse Jackie, as Wallis Simpson in the 2010 film The King's Speech, and Dolley Madison in the 2011 American Experience television special about that First Lady.-Early life and education:Best...
as Ruth, and Gareth Saxe as Joey, and directed by Daniel Sullivan, opened on 16 December 2007, for a "20-week limited engagement" through 13 April 2008, at the Cort Theatre
Cort Theatre
The Cort Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 138 West 48th Street in the Theatre District of midtown Manhattan in New York City...
. It received Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations for Best Revival of a Play
Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play
The Tony Award for Best Revival has only been awarded since 1994. Prior to that, plays and musicals were considered together for the Tony Award for Best Revival...
, Best Actress in a Play
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The award has been presented since 1947, and is for performance in new productions or revivals.-1940s:...
(Eve Best) and Best Featured Actor in a Play (Raul Esparza). It also received the Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.
Almeida revival
The Homecoming was also revived at the Almeida Theatre
Almeida Theatre
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
in Islington, London, from 31 January through 22 March 2008. The cast included Kenneth Cranham
Kenneth Cranham
Kenneth Cranham is a film, television and stage actor. He starred in the title role in the popular 1980s comedy drama Shine on Harvey Moon. He also appeared in Layer Cake, Gangster No. 1, Rome, Oliver! and many other films. He is probably best known to horror genre fans as the deranged Dr...
, Neil Dudgeon
Neil Dudgeon
Neil Dudgeon is a British actor best known for his many television appearances, most often in crime drama.-Early Life:Dudgeon was born 1 January 1961 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, and attended Danum Grammar School among others. He established himself as an actor in school plays and went on to study...
, Danny Dyer
Danny Dyer
Danny Dyer is an English actor, media personality, and chairman of Greenwich Borough, a non-League football team.-Biography:Daniel John Dyer was born in Custom House, an area of East London, to Antony and Christine Dyer...
, Jenny Jules
Jenny Jules
Jenny Jules is an award-winning English actress of stage and screen. She started her acting career as a member of the youth theatre program at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, London...
, and Nigel Lindsay
Nigel Lindsay
Nigel Lindsay is an English actor. He was nominated for Best British Comedy Performance in Film at the 2011 British Comedy Awards for his performance as Barry, the Muslim convert in Chris Morris's BAFTA winning Four Lions and won the 2011 Whatsonstage Award for Best Supporting Actor as Dr Harry...
.
Others
Other recent and "upcoming events" (updated periodically), including many past, current, and future productions of The Homecoming, are listed on the home page of Pinter's official website and through its lefthand menu of links to the "Calendar" ("Worldwide Calendar").
External links
- HaroldPinter.org – Official site of Harold Pinter. Includes information about past, current, and upcoming productions of The Homecoming and further information about international productions in the "Worldwide Calendar". (Note: There are sometimes typographical errors in material posted on the site; e.g., reviews are retyped and in the process sometimes errors occurred.)
- "A Conversation with Actor Ian McShane" (Max) – Charlie RoseCharlie Rose (talk show)Charlie Rose is an American television interview show, with Charlie Rose as executive producer, executive editor, and host. The show is syndicated...
, PBS, broadcast of March 24, 2008. ("A conversation with actor Ian McShaneIan McShaneIan David McShane is an English actor, director, producer, voice artist, and comedian.Despite appearing in numerous films, McShane is best known for his television roles, particularly the BBC's Lovejoy and HBO's Western drama Deadwood...
about his role in the 40th Anniversary Broadway revival of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming.") - "1st Night Photos: Hall & Pinter at The Homecoming – What's On Stage, Almeida TheatreAlmeida TheatreThe Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 8 Feb. 2008. ["For 1st Night Photos, our Whatsonstage.com photographer Dan Wooller was on hand for the post-show party at the Almeida along with the company, Harold PinterHarold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
, Peter Hall and other first-night guests including Jonathan PryceJonathan PryceJonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
, Kate FahyKate FahyKatherine "Kate" Fahy is an English stage and film actress from Birmingham. She studied drama at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and then joined its "Young Vic Theatre Company". Later on she joined the Everyman Theatre Liverpool Company, where she met actor Jonathan Pryce...
, Rula LenskaRula LenskaRula Lenska is an English actress. Best known for her work in the United Kingdom, she is remembered in the United States for a television advert that presented her as a celebrity, even though she was not widely known in the US at the time the advert was produced.She has appeared extensively on...
, Lindsay Posner, Anthony PageAnthony PageAnthony Page is a British stage- and film director.-Filmography:*Male of the Species 3-episode TV special that featured Sir Laurence Olivier, Paul Scofield, Sean Connery and Michael Caine. The Scofield episode, Emlyn, won an Emmy Award...
, Will Tuckett, Lolita ChakrabartiLolita ChakrabartiLolita Chakrabarti is an actress and writer based in London, United Kingdom.As an actress she has worked extensively on stage and screen...
, Indhu Rubasingham, Douglas HenshallDouglas HenshallDouglas James Henshall is a Scottish actor probably best known for his role as Professor Nick Cutter in the British science fiction series Primeval.-Early life:...
, Ralph BrownRalph BrownRalph William John Brown is an English actor and writer, known for playing Danny the drug dealer in Withnail and I, the security guard Aaron in Alien 3, DJ Bob Silver in The Boat That Rocked, and the pilot Ric Olié in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace...
and Croatian playwright Tena StivicicTena ŠtivicicTena Štivičić is a Croatian playwright. She was born in Zagreb and studied in the Academy of Drama Art there. She completed an MA in Writing for Performance at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has taken part in theatre events such as Future Perfect, the Paines Plough Young Writers...
."] - The Homecoming at the Almeida TheatreAlmeida TheatreThe Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
– Official webpage for the 2008 production. Hyperlinked sections of "Production details", "The Cast", "Creative Team", "Articles & Reviews"; "Read More", and "Gallery". - The Homecoming on Broadway: The Story – Official site of the 2007–2008 Cort TheatreCort TheatreThe Cort Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 138 West 48th Street in the Theatre District of midtown Manhattan in New York City...
production. Hyperlinked sections of news, reviews, production and playwright information, photos, a blog, and other useful features, including electronic newsletter subscription service. (Home page in the Flash site not accessible [may be miscoded]; see archived version from 12 Oct. 2007.) - Kino on Video – Official site of the distributor of American Film TheatreAmerican Film TheatreThe American Film Theatre was a limited run series of film adaptations of stage plays, produced by Ely Landau. Two seasons were produced from 1973 to 1975...
(In three box sets: "Collection One"; "Collection Two"; and "Collection Three"; The Homecoming is one of the DVDs in "Collection Two" (Box 2). UPCUniversal Product CodeThe Universal Product Code is a barcode symbology , that is widely used in North America, and in countries including the UK, Australia, and New Zealand for tracking trade items in stores. Its most common form, the UPC-A, consists of 12 numerical digits, which are uniquely assigned to each trade item...
73832902912. - "Theater: 'The Homecoming' " – Online audio-visual feature focusing on the 2007–2008 Cort TheatreCort TheatreThe Cort Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 138 West 48th Street in the Theatre District of midtown Manhattan in New York City...
production, by Ben BrantleyBen BrantleyBenjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...
, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, 23 Dec. 2007, Arts & Leisure Desk.