The Homecoming

The Pain of Pinter

I just don't get it. Every theater critic loves Pinter. This play focuses on a savage and ravaged group of people roughly called a family. An academic son returns home with his wife in tow leaving their two sons back home in America where he teaches. His two brothers, one a simpleton blue-collar worked, the other a pimp, still live at home with their father. The home is still haunted with the ghost of their mother. But these men misogynistically whorify both their dead mother and the son/brother's wife. She at first frets about even being there, then she wryly responds to the crude and insultive attacks from the in-laws before reverting to a literal prostitute. While some think this complete merge of the Madonna/whore archetypes interesting and engaging, I found it insulting and crude. Many find humor in such blatant disregard for clichéd writing replaced with such abhorrent, predatory, controlling actions and words but I only found it equivalent to dialog frat boys would come up with if they had a better grasp of vocabulary and a rich knowledge of classical theater. Bleck.

That said, bravo to the excellent cast giving performances that are superb beyond words. Ian McShane is gritty, broken and bitter as the patriarch, Max, showing his boys how to behave with such venom towards women and, to the same extent, themselves. Michael McKane plays the only gentle character as Sam, Max's brother who is also a chauffeur. Raul Esperaza plays the pimp brother. Gareth Sax plays the simpleton brother. James Frain is the professorial brother trying to hold up his wife despite her slides into debauchery. Huge kudos must go to Eve Best's portrayal of Ruth. She swings from weak and worried to sharp, confident, and controlling before devolving into base sexuality, lust, and co-dependence. So perhaps I just don't 'get' Pinter but I could see that under such wonderful direction and acting, the material can really challenge and bring out the best in only the most proficient and confident of actors. Too bad I just couldn't stomach the brutality and degradation of the writing. Guess I'm too squeamish when it comes to the raw brutality of humanity.