The Homecoming - Young Vic

[Jan]

Jul 29, 2023 6:13:33 GMT jr said:

Have they released all tickets? Both this and Nachtland seem to be sold out for top floors and lucky dip. Find this a bit weird.

Unusually it was possible to check availability in advance of public booking opening (they enforced the public booking date/time as part of the checkout process). I looked at lots of dates and I didn't see a single lucky dip ticket available, so either the members bought them all (unlikely) or they haven't released them all yet. I guess the latter. 

[Dave B]

I would guess they held a lot back. I went for the £12 front row, slightly worried about the traverse as Rory notes and would likely have tried a lucky dip instead if available. YV usually pretty good at taking staging into account so hopefully all good for mine.

[mrnutz]

I also could find no LD tickets for either production on any of the dates I checked!

[bordeaux]

I agree the Robin Lefevre/Ian Holm/Lia Williams production from the Gate at the Comedy (now Pinter) theatre in 2001 was superb. Even better was the National Theatre 1997 production directed by Roger Michell. David Bradley was the father, Keith Allen and Lindsay Duncan were the couple and two of the siblings were played by Eddie Marsan and Michael Sheen. Probably my favourite Pinter production ever.

[Deleted]

Aug 4, 2023 13:27:52 GMT bordeaux said:

I agree the Robin Lefevre/Ian Holm/Lia Williams production from the Gate at the Comedy (now Pinter) theatre in 2001 was superb. Even better was the National Theatre 1997 production directed by Roger Michell. David Bradley was the father, Keith Allen and Lindsay Duncan were the couple and two of the siblings were played by Eddie Marsan and Michael Sheen. Probably my favourite Pinter production ever.

Keith Allen seems an ideal actor to do Pinter as he always had that dangerous dark side. Great to be able to catch Eddie and Michael so early in their careers before they went onto become top names too.

[MrBunbury]

Could it have a non White cast this time? The Young Vic has been very attentive to have a more diverse cast under Kwame Kwei-Armah.

[zahidf]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66893873

Joe Cole and Jared Harris cast in this

[Dave B]

Oooh Jared Harris is exciting.

[teamyali]

Ooohhhh Jared!! I love Jared. Coming off from season 2 of Foundation on Apple TV+ (I highly recommend this show, especially season 2 is a massive improvement, akin to prestige TV), this is a good time. There are reports that season 3 has begun filming prior to the strikes, although Apple has not formally announced a renewal, but most likely they will once the actors’ strikes have been settled.

[andrew]

Booked, thank you Theatreboard for up to the minute news! I've become a massive Jared Harris fan of late, The Crown, The Terror, Chernobyl, Foundation have been excellent with his contributions.

[zahidf]

[zephyrus]

Aug 4, 2023 15:45:20 GMT MrBunbury said:

Could it have a non White cast this time? The Young Vic has been very attentive to have a more diverse cast under Kwame Kwei-Armah.

Looks like they have, in fact, gone for an all-white cast. Which is something that hardly happens these days, and yet seems to be a trend in the recent work of this particular director (ie, The Pillowman.)  I won’t be going anyway because, despite the appeal of some of the actors, there is someone in the cast whose acting I don’t care for. 

[lynette]

I know we are all used to blind casting these days but for this a mixed cast would be problematic . So much of it is based on the family relationships and the only person who could therefore be of a different race is the woman and the nature of that part would bring into play another whole layer of associations which Pinter didn’t have in mind. This is my view of it. An all black or other all non white cast would work of course. So I suppose they plumped for this way.

I know, I know, Henry V etc etc but Willy is different isn’t he?

[nottobe]

Was lucky enough to grab a first preview ticket for this and went last night. I've seen a handful of Pinter's and when this was announced I knew that it would depend on the casting to sway me to see it. I am a Jared Harris fan so I was interested.

I've seen this film of this once and don't remember it in the slightest so went in basically blind. What strikes when you walked into the theatre was an overwhelming amount of smoke they had pre show. It really was so much that you could struggle to see everyone around. This should maybe be cut as it is not used at any point on the actual play itself. You also are greeted with the loudest most annoying piece of jazz music that keeps repeating, which should definitely be reduced some what. Other than that the set design is fairly traditional if a quite stylised of the period.

So the show itself. If you don't know the play like me, I think you just have to go with the weirdness of it all. It really is such a bizarre play. But also I had quite a bit of fun watching it. Like lots of Pinter it hard to pinpoint but mainly two hours of power dynamics shifting in a family and characters constantly shifting what they are talking about. Some where skeptical on the direction but I thought it was well done, with some interesting choices and motifs but all mostly traditional.

I thought the cast where all good for a first preview but of course as the run goes on they will settle in more and create a more natural dynamic. For me the best performance was Nicolas Tennant as Sam, who just had something that made him so watchable. But the whole cast of six are very strong and understand how to play the.

Yes this is not going to be for everyone and maybe isn't that relevant in our modern world but it is a very interesting play of the period and here given a strong production. I wonder how more knowledgeable Pinter fans will find this.

[blaxx]

Nov 28, 2023 9:18:20 GMT nottobe said:

Was lucky enough to grab a first preview ticket for this and went last night. I've seen a handful of Pinter's and when this was announced I knew that it would depend on the casting to sway me to see it. I am a Jared Harris fan so I was interested.

I've seen this film of this once and don't remember it in the slightest so went in basically blind. What strikes when you walked into the theatre was an overwhelming amount of smoke they had pre show. It really was so much that you could struggle to see everyone around. This should maybe be cut as it is not used at any point on the actual play itself. You also are greeted with the loudest most annoying piece of jazz music that keeps repeating, which should definitely be reduced some what. Other than that the set design is fairly traditional if a quite stylised of the period.

So the show itself. If you don't know the play like me, I think you just have to go with the weirdness of it all. It really is such a bizarre play. But also I had quite a bit of fun watching it. Like lots of Pinter it hard to pinpoint but mainly two hours of power dynamics shifting in a family and characters constantly shifting what they are talking about. Some where skeptical on the direction but I thought it was well done, with some interesting choices and motifs but all mostly traditional.

I thought the cast where all good for a first preview but of course as the run goes on they will settle in more and create a more natural dynamic. For me the best performance was Nicolas Tennant as Sam, who just had something that made him so watchable. But the whole cast of six are very strong and understand how to play the.

Yes this is not going to be for everyone and maybe isn't that relevant in our modern world but it is a very interesting play of the period and here given a strong production. I wonder how more knowledgeable Pinter fans will find this.

The "mostly traditional" part is a turn off. Doesn't sound exciting at all.

[jr]

Cheap ticket available on noticeboard for 18/12. Dm if interested.

[frankubelik]

I would advise taking your seat no more than five minutes prior to curtain as the previously mentioned jazz has a particularly jarring effect and it sets an unsettling tone the rest of the production fails to deliver. Yes, it is a strange play but I felt none of the underlying menace and tension present in previous productions and much of the casting is underwhelming. An odd variety of strangulated vowels throughout and much of the dialogue is lost (from the second row); Mr Cole curiously unexpressive throughout (aside from the curtain call) and the "boxer" unconvincing. Nicholas Tennant was the only actor who resonated with the correct "style".

[oxfordsimon]

If the piece doesn't crackle with tension then it has failed.

It has to be there in the chemistry between Teddy and Ruth and it also has to be there in the toxicity of the male behaviours.

[teamyali]

Reviews are out and safe to say the production has very mixed reviews, leaning more towards meh and not wow (with the exception of Jared Harris, more praises for his performance). I guess Matthew Dunster was very lucky with Sheridan Smith for Shirley Valentine early this year, which remains his best work so far for 2023.


Four stars: The Telegraph, The Upcoming, Evening Standard
Three stars: The Guardian, The Stage, WhatsOnStage, i Paper, Time Out
Two stars: The Times, BroadwayWorld UK, The Independent

Time to open a poll, I guess

[Rory]

The reviews seem to praise most aspects of the production itself but the misogyny of the text appears to have lowered the star ratings.

[Steve]

Saw today's matinee, and LIKED it a lot.

Dunster tries and often succeeds in doing things differently.

Some spoilers follow. . .

This doesn't feel like the typical macho, posturing, men-at-war play I expected, with all the men cruelly trying to outdo and one-up each other to establish alpha dominance, but feels more grounded in the loneliness, despair and neediness of Jared Harris's patriarch, Max, depicting him as drowning in the toxic comfortable numbness of his children, which he is almost certainly responsible for.

Since softening up Pinter's most macho play is a perverse and quirky thing to do, to a perverse and quirky play, it is deliciously weird to watch but lacks the explosive punch you usually would get with this play.

Rather, this production presents the younger characters as the product of prior explosive traumas, caused by the older generation.

Light and sound signalled freeze frame moments, elaborate and extend specific traumatic moments, attempting to trace the path of trauma through unfulfilled neediness into ultimate transactional numbness.

Nicolas Tennant is fantastic as Max's brother Sam, the least numb, least damaged character, whose existence is made precarious in a family of automatons. He is like a placebo by which you can measure the extent of the youthful generation's numbness.

Joe Cole, Lisa Diveney and Robert Emms deliver pristinely beautiful chilly performances of numb transactional characters, respectively, as Lenny the pimp, Ruth the sex worker and Teddy the procurer.

Most interesting is how Dunster presents Emms's Teddy, typically depicted as a humiliated cuckold, as someone much more powerful, unphased and deliberate.

Key to the production is Harris's Lear like f--kup of a Max, who has created a family that can't and won't fulfill any of his needs, but who spends the running time genuinely and desperately trying to emotionally reach out to them lol

Like I said, a really weird, hit and miss Pinter. 3 and a half stars from me.

[jr]

Just found one £12 and several £25 tickets for 25/1. Not sure if returns of if they release them bit by bit. They weren't there yesterday.

[nash16]

Dec 7, 2023 9:32:20 GMT jr said:

Just found one £12 and several £25 tickets for 25/1. Not sure if returns of if they release them bit by bit. They weren't there yesterday.

There’ll be more returns probably given the reviews.

[parsley1]

Good god this is appalling

What a poor excuse of a director

Attracts stars like a flies to a dung heap

Mystery
Joe Cole channelling Frank Spencer vibes
Excruciating

[Jan]

I quite enjoyed this. 3*. However there is way too much direction going on - the ear-splitting jazz, the ambient sound and cymbal crashes, the smoke, the spotlights. All unnecessary. Also the set is wrong - it looks like some huge airy minimalist 2023 designer room when it should be 1950's small and claustrophobic. Even the record player and old vinyl record sleeves makes it look very contemporary.

Apart from Nicholas Tennant I don't think I have seen any of the actors before. I suppose some are famous from TV. But none of them were very compelling on stage. The acting was uneven, not in quality particularly but in style. Some could have been in an Alan Ayckbourn play, some in an Arthur Miller, and one in King Lear - also a failure of direction I think. One the whole the 2016 Jamie Lloyd production was better.

We are at the stage now where Pinter's plays will start disappearing from the repertoire. I can't remember the last time the NT staged one and for a British Nobel Prize winning playwright that seems odd for Britain's national theatre. I doubt this particular play will be revived again any time soon, or ever. I wonder which of his plays will survive - No Man's Land as a star vehicle maybe, and Betrayal which is somewhat untypical of his work. I've seen almost all of his plays but new theatregoers won't be able to.