No dancin' but fishin', no smokin' but Rock 'N' Roll, The Homecoming is a two-act play written in 1964 by Harold Pinter and first published in 1965. Its premières in London (1965) and New York (1967) were both directed by Sir Peter Hall.
The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play. Its 40th-anniversary Broadway production at the Cort Theatre was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for "Best Revival of a Play".
Set in North London, the play has six characters. Five of these are men who are related to each other: Max, a retired butcher; his brother Sam, a chauffeur; and Max's three sons: Teddy, a philosophy professor in the United States; Lenny, a pimp who only makes discreet references to his "occupation" and his clientele and flats in the city (London); and Joey, a brute training to become a professional boxer and who works in demolition.
There is one woman, Ruth, Teddy's wife. The play concerns Teddy's and Ruth's "homecoming," which has distinctly different symbolic and thematic implications. In the initial productions and the film of the same name, Pinter's first wife, Vivien Merchant, played Ruth.
Plot:
After having lived in the United States for six years, Teddy brings his wife, Ruth, home for the first time to meet his working-class family in North London, where he grew up, and which she finds more familiar than their arid academic life in America. The two married in London before moving to the United States.
Much sexual tension occurs as Ruth teases Teddy's brothers and father, and the men taunt one another in a game of one-upmanship, resulting in Ruth's staying behind with Teddy's relatives as "one of the family" and Teddy returning home to their three sons in America without her.
The Play (Film Version):
1973, UK
Director: Peter Hall
Stars: Paul Rogers, Ian Holm, Cyril Cusack
Writer: Harold Pinter
My Personal Comments:
Basically, this play is trying to question the aggressive nature of the male gender in terms of sexual appetite through a feminist perspective which's highly arguable and ambiguous in terms of philosophical approach but that's a long story.
On the other hand, ı'm not interested in Feminist ideas that are in accordance with capitalism and the fascist establishment but ı believe in gender equality along with anticapitalist ideas bounded all together in a single package under the title of anarchism, and ı truly respect the female gender.
As a simple example, a feminist might be proud of female military officers and their ranks in the army and navy as an indication of gender equality on the other, however, if we approach the subject from an antimilitarist perspective in this case that is just ridiculous and meaningless.
I believe this play could have been kind of an inspiration repository for a lot of other productions such as Lars Von Trier''s Nymphomaniac film series and even the sensational film 'Basic Instinct'. unfortunately, they rather to copy and paste a lot rather than to try create scripts starting from scratch.
As a matter of fact, dear writer Mr. Pinters's philosophical approach to this highly controversial and complicated subject is a little bit primitive and false in my terms.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comment is awaiting moderation.