The Homecoming

This Harold Pinter play belongs to the theater of the absurd tradition. It does not seek to portray life as it is authentically or realistically but gives us a view of life through a crazed mirror image. It is life seen as an absurd concoction in which desire is realized and the abnormal replaces the normal. The setting is deceiving: a realistic seedy London living room, but the family who dwell therein veer off the track into the world of the absurd.We get to know a great deal about the pasts of these characters: an old man, his brother Sam, his three grown sons, and the wife of one of the sons. She and her husband are visiting from America where he is a philosophy professor. They have left their three little sons at home. We see a large slice of the ordinary lives of these six people. But people in real life don't act this way, theatergoers say. Of course they don't. Why go to the theater to see the commonplace, the ordinary? Why not see what would happen when libidos take over? I saw an insightful production of this play on Broadway on January12, 2008. It featured Ian McShane as Max, the nasty father, Raul Esparza as Lenny, the pimp. Eve Best played the enigmatic sexual tease Ruth, and three other fine actors rounded out the cast. The play was full of menace, irony, and shock, but with many bits that drew laughter. The father and his two stay-at-home sons have a low opinion of women, and Ruth certainly reinforces that view. Lenny talks about his violence toward women. Teddy, the philosophy teacher, an ersatz intellectual, acquiesces to his wife staying with the family as a tart stoically and unfeelingly. The father knows his sons' and his brother's weaknesses, and he cruelly exploits them. Everything seems sinister and threatening. Lenny blows his stack over trivial matters: his brother Teddy has deliberately eaten the cheese sandwich he was saving for himself while Teddy blithely accepts that his wife is deserting him and staying with his family to become a hooker. The trivial becomes earthshaking, and crucial matters become trivial. She does not do what a real person would do, but what a woman might do if she let her deeper, darker nature take over. The father's brother Sam ineffectual and impotent. Early on Max says to Same that he should get married and bring his wife home to live in the family manse so everyone can "enjoy" her. The readers or the audience squirm in their seats and don't get it. Since this play was written forty-two years ago, the audiences have lost their understanding of the absurdist traditions and have slipped back into their state of undemanding, timid and risk-free theatergoing. Nobel prize winner Pinter blazed new ground for them, and they are right back where they started from.

"The Homecoming" was labeled by one early critic as a "comedy of menace", and I feel that sums it up better than anything else I have heard. This is a dark, deeply ambiguous, and funny play. I first read this play in college, and then again recently, soon after seeing an excellent production of it at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario Canada staring Brian Dennehy. Being older and more experienced, I feel much better about the play then I did when I first encountered it years ago.I am hesitant to say what the play is about, because even after seeing a very good production, and reading the text closely, there are a myriad of possibilities about how to interpret the script, and the nuances therein. The play certainly is about family relationships, sexual jealousy, gender power dynamics, and many other things to boot. And yet, Pinter never gives us an insight into what he really thinks about these things, and at times I am not even sure the characters do. And it works!A strength of the play are the characters Max and Lenny. In Lenny especially Pinter has created a daunting and very intriguing character that can make the audience squirm in their seats. He is dark, funny, smart, and a pimp. A wonderful role for a talented performer to sink his teeth into. In fact, all of the roles have wonderful possibilities in performance.However, the greatest power in the play lies not in what is said, but rather in what is NOT said. It is there that the reader is stimulated into following up on hints in the text, and making up most of the story for themselves in their head. The infamous "Pinter pause" is certainly on display in this work. I can imagine many interesting conversations to be had while arguing about what the play is really saying.Some readers hate that ambiguity, I love it. It is a personal preference so be warned, if you pick up "The Homecoming" you will be left with more questions than answers.

So THIS is Pinter? I have finally, for the first time, gotten around to reading the lauded Harold Pinter. What an introduction. For those unfamiliar with The Homecoming it's an extremely strange tale of a highly dysfunctional family, a widowed father and his grown male sons, all but one of whom still live in the family home. The bickering and petty rivalries are familiar enough, even the insults and disrespect they show each other are no worse than might be seen in other conflicted families. But... when the "prodigal" son returns with his new wife for a visit and his father and brothers, within a few days, easily take ownership of her, sexually and otherwise, one realizes this is not just another tale of family tensions or idiosyncrasies. I'm still unsure exactly what this play is about - beyond the shock value there's some message or cautionary tale or social commentary here, but in all honesty, I have yet to put my finger on it. In some ways this play seems entirely modern, ahead of its time, and in others it reeks of a primitive sensibility. My only advice is to read it yourself... and ponder.

Bought this book used was in really good condition. Seller probably underrated the book which is good because I was pleasantly surprised when it came in.

It really showed the trials of Communist China, but also the humanity of the people involved. Amazing how one family cared for each other through everything.

Crazy, intense, sexual, violent, delightful!

How do you see your family and the choices we make in living. The answers are deeply hidden and challenging to uncover. Worthy of study to understand oneself.

this is the type of play that seems to have been written for the sole purpose of having people analyze it to death. it is an ugly play full of ugly characters. Bring your anti-depressants - you'll need them.

I didnt like the book. It was written in play format. I didnt enjoy the story, I didnt finish the book. Someone else could have a totally different opinion. You have to make your own judgment , we are all different.

Use it for university, just like the copy I would have been able to get out of the library if we weren't in lockdown

Almost every page had scribbled, illegible notes written in pencil and ink. This spoilt the appearance of the book and was off putting when reading it. I bought the book as I am a member of a play reading group. I have read through the play and would not recommend it my friends.When we have read the play together I will throw it away as I would not even give it to a charity shop.It was not worth the 1p, plus postage, I paid for it.

Looking forward to seeing Jamie Lloyd's 50th Anniversary production of this in November - and to getting it autographed by the cast I hope! Another strange but compelling play by Harold Pinter.

Hard work this play, it's very misogynistic and suddenly unexplained events happen, can't quite work it out!