I have frequently remarked that this or
that actor was born to play Pinter. Perhaps the truth of the matter is
that Pinter is immensely, deceptively playable. You can give one of his
characters, or an entire production, a whole range of flavourings as
long as the basic ingredient is in place: namely that every line,
virtually without exception, can be delivered with a pointedness, as an
overt or covert power play.
In this RSC revival of
The Homecoming
(Peter Hall's 1965 premičre production was under this company's aegis),
director David Farr's approach is to replace "can be" in that last
observation with an unequivocal "is". I do not recall ever seeing such
unremitting jostling for the upper hand in this Pinterian household.
Sometimes the moves are unsubtle, even brutal, as with tyrannical
patriarch Max and his wannabe-boxer son Joey; sometimes stiletto-sharp,
as with other son Lenny; sometimes oblique but still palpably
manipulative, as with Teddy, the white sheep of the family, and his
wife Ruth with whom he arrives on an unannounced visit. Sometimes,
indeed, such tactics are directed at the audience: when Aislín
McGuckin's Ruth makes her teasing "I move my legs" speech to Joey, it
is surely deliberate that she also gives one sector of the Swan
audience a leisurely upskirt exposure.
Farr has assembled a Pinter-
par-excellence
cast. As Max, Nicholas Woodeson is not the familiar ageing hulk, but a
former bantamweight long gone to seed. Jonathan Slinger's Lenny is a
touch overfond of modulating his high nasal wheedle into a basso
depth-charge, but he gets full value out of every word; even when he
sarcastically adopts a childish pleading tone, he so quietens his voice
that it becomes paradoxically menacing. Justin Salinger is an excellent
actor of listening, thinking and forbearing, and so a perfect fit for
Teddy, silent as his father, brothers and wife defy him. Jon Bausor's
set integrates East London domesticity well with the Swan's particular
timbered identity, although I could do without the fly-killer-buzzing
strip lights between scenes. As a flagship in the RSC's strand of work
emphasising its 50 years of commitment to new writing, this serves as a
fine illustration of Hall's reasons for describing Pinter back in the
1960s as the Royal Shakespeare Company's second "anchor".
Written for the Financial
Times.