For many people, The Homecoming is Harold Pinter’s masterpiece. Jamie Lloyd celebrates the play’s 50th birthday at Trafalgar Studios with a highly stylised and totally non-realistic production. The sparse set, the tableaux, the loud music and the blackouts increase the artificiality. Rich in irony and ambiguity, Pinter’s lethally colloquial script offers possibilities for many interpretations.
Max, an ex-criminal, lives with Sam, his brother, and two of his sons, Lenny, a violent pimp and Joey, a dumb boxer. Teddy, his eldest son, a Doctor of Philosophy, returns from America with his wife Ruth. The household immediately recognises her for what she is. Ruth, unhappy with the academic life, is quite prepared to be a poule de luxe in London and a surrogate mother to her husband’s family.
