Pinters ”Home Coming’ at London’s Bridewell Theatre
The Bridewell Theatre in Bride Lane just off Fleet Steet in London is staging Harold Pinter’s award-winning play, ’The Homecoming.’
Pinter is one of the influential and enamoured playwrights of the modern age and up to his death in December 2008 had a lucrative career that spanned over 50 years. Together with Betrayal, The Caretaker and The Birthday Party, ’The Home Coming’ rates as one of his best known works for which he won the Tony Award for best play in 1967. Pinter’s plays are noted for their silent pauses, obsessive jealousy, mental disorders and family hatred and these aspects in ’The Homecoming’ are legendary.
Set in North London, ’The Homecoming’ tells the story of ex-patriots, Teddy and his wife, Ruth, returning home to their working class roots, a stark contrast, yet familiar surroundings, to the life of academia they had been living in America. Visiting Teddy’s family, his father Max and three insatiable brothers, it becomes apparent that Ruth was finding life in the US dull and uninspiring, compared to the familiarity and warmth of the people back home. As the only woman in the throng, Ruth is the focus of attention and as the male testosterone rises the one-upmanship and mutual loathing the four brothers have for one another undermine their family values in favour of their irrevocable need for social status.
Pinter cleverly weaves the underlying truths of Ruth into a minefield of mystery. Unlike the intentions of the brothers and the exploration of mala Oedipal psychology, Ruth’s motivation is a seed planted so far beneath the surface it is barely given the chance to grow. Does she think that coming home could change all that or does she already have a master plan?
’The Homecoming’ runs for four nights at the Bridewell Theatre opening on 23rd February. Tickets cost £11.
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