I don’t
know if you guys remember what I did when I first got into film… I actually
made it my business to watch a film a day. It’s a habit I plan to get into once
the nightmare that is working in catering during the Christmas period is over
and done with for one more year. My point though, is that I would genuinely
have loved to have been able to do this for theatre too.
I have
several problems in doing this though. I mean first of all, you have to make a
substantial chunk of time for it. Which is fine, except if you have a million
commitments and only one of you –a situation you are barely sustaining already
- so really barely have time to shower
every day much less factor in trips to the theatre. Cheap tickets aren’t that
hard to come by really – there are a million and one discount ticket websites
all around and with a bit of careful planning you can find a ticket of some
sort – but the thing is I rather do prefer getting “proper” seats, i.e. not the
nosebleed seats. Well what can I say, that’s my little luxury… In short, I
genuinely wish I could, but I can’t. I nearly missed this twice. Got on the
bandwagon with a bunch of friends at the 11th hour, three weeks went
by, I forgot we had booked the tickets and had to do a lot of wriggling out of
work to be able to attend.
Well, the
guys had certainly picked a good one. The Homecoming is considered one of Pinter’s
best plays and Jamie Loyd one of his best interpreters of our time. With a stellar cast to boot, this has to be
one of the stronger productions of the play… It is the story of Teddy (Garry
Kemp) who returns from America to introduce his new wife, Ruth (Gemma Chan) to
his family. His mother has long since departed this world and his cantankerous
father ( Ron Cook), his uncle, Sam (Keith Allen) and brother Joey (John
MacMillan) and Lenny (John Simm). This is a thoroughly masculine household,
clearly marked by a lack of warmth and love. And from the moment she arrives,
Ruth’s very presence changes absolutely everything… But how will this strange power
struggle – with Ruth as the ultimate prize – ever end?
We went to
this play as a mixed group of friends – most of the women came out of the play
crying “Misogyny!” – and of course strictly speaking this is true. The entire power
play in the game (for it is, in all but name, a game) is based around sex and
gender. The portrayal of the household before Ruth as uniquely male and
therefore cold, full of resentment and loveless is a very old-fashioned way of
determining gender roles . And when it boils down to the final confrontation,
the entire power play is based around sex. That and – for those who know the play
– the final position Ruth ends up in puts the whole dialogue between the
genders onto a purely sexual plain – not even an emotional one. In this sense,
the character of Ruth is clearly reduced to her gender and nothing else. But
herein of course lies the talent of Gemma Chan who is very clever at hinting at
the hidden depths – and not all of them particularly pleasant! – of Ruth that
has been suppressed by circumstance and ‘50s society. Yes, without a doubt Pinter’s
story is a misogynistic and reductionist portrayal of a woman. But the other point
to remember is that this is by and large the reflection of the society the play
was created in. Art and life are, at the end of the day, pretty much
inextricable.
The other
thing worth pointing out is that in this particular universe Ruth does – in my
opinion – end up as the boss. True, her control over the men is purely sexual
(although the final scenes of the play do hint at a lack of more motherly
affection that is the key problem as well) but the point is that she is, in one
sense, the one calling the shots. The only problem is that apparently she
cannot exert any kind of control without using her sexuality. But she is the
boss, nonetheless.
This is a
brave production. I loved the minimal and stark décor and the permanent air of
uncomfortable cold and resentment that runs through almost every single line
exchanged between the mail characters. The music, the décor (or indeed the lack
thereof) and the whole story marks it out, at first at least, as a very “male”
story made for a man’s world. I guess what we should see it as is what happens
if you insert one strong and provocative female character into this very male
world. It definitely provides a lot of food for thought.
The
Homecoming is not one of the faint of heart. It is not a bit of light
entertainment of an evening. It is strong, it grabs you by the throat and
forces you to look at some stuff that is not necessarily that pleasant to look
at. It is however a wonderfully talented cast performing a story that is –
whether we like it or not – strangely relevant to our present day, at least
definitely at some parts of the world and of modern society. Also – from personal
experience – a good introduction to Pinter, if you haven’t been introduced yet!
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