Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
This production of Harold Pinter's Nobel-Prize winning The Homecoming came to life in a modest house situated in north London. When the eldest son Teddy returns home after having spent six years in America, his new wife Ruth causes quite a stir amongst his family. Powerful sexual tension unfolds in Harold Pinter's Nobel-prize winning The Homecoming.
As Ruth teases Teddy's brothers, Joe and Lenny, and father, Max, with lewd and suggestive advances, it is clear that she is unhappy in her relationship. Teddy appears blind to this, claiming she only needs 'rest'. However, the play takes its darkest turn when Max expresses a strong desire for her to be 'one of the family.' He collaborates with Lenny, forming a plan to have her working as a prostitute. The only resident who seems deeply affected by this is the Uncle, Sam, who protests, 'She's got three children,' to which Max replies 'She can have more!'. Teddy also initially debates the issue, without a great deal of emotion, and decides that it is up to Ruth whether she wants to return to the children or not. Ruth chillingly decides to submit herself to the men and stay as a 'member of the family', leaving Teddy to return to the children alone.
The plot clearly paves the way for masterful performances on stage; however, I remain unsure whether the potential of this production was fully achieved Although Pinter puts seemingly banal conversation into the play, it does have a purpose to fulfill. This failed to come across in the production as the prosaic discussions were simply delivered at face value; many exchanges became bland and boring. Another dramatic technique synonymous with Pinter is the use of pauses. These can provide electrifying moments of suspense as we await the characters' responses, or they can take us to low places, weighed down by an emotional burden. Unfortunately, this production didn't work well with these pauses. It was as if the director had some sort of an aversion to silence. Many of them were undermined by superfluous sounds, such as when Sam loudly crunches an apple or when the audio of police sirens were played. The exchanges in general had little breaks in speech and this meant that significant moments were once again lost because of actors responding too quickly to hugely plot-twisting moments.
The lack of silences were my main problem with this production. Indeed, the actors as a whole delivered very clever and thoughtful performances. Sam Hazeldine's Lenny had a sinister and dark quality throughout, leaving us unsure about his next course of action. Another notable performance came from Ian Harris as Teddy. Harris portrayed Teddy with a lot of ambiguous emotions and expressions, intriguing us as to the many possible thoughts going through his mind, and it is this sense of being uncertain about a character that, for me, Pinter was keen to depict.
The big moments of the play were also done well. Teddy's departure was an impressive example of this. The whole cast was perfectly still for some time until Teddy broke this, calmly taking his coat and leaving. This certainly made the final minutes of the play disturbing and shocking.
Despite the various aspects of the performance that were effective, I still cannot help but be frustrated by this production and its disregard for silence. It had huge potential, with a brilliant expressionistic set and realistic lighting. However the deficient 'Pinter pause' meant that too much of the play became boring and certainly not a great advert to those experiencing Pinter for the first time.
The Homecoming is on at the York Theatre Royal from 30 May- 20 June. Tickets are available from the box office on 01904 623569 or from the York Theatre Royal website (click [1] to go to site) [1]
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