crawls around Sam (who has apparently suffered a heart attack and lies unconscious on the floor), begging her: “Kiss me.” She makes no reply and while Lenny stands watching, the curtain falls.

The characters in The Homecoming are similar to those in Pinter’s earlier plays—men (and, for the first time in a Pinter play, a powerful woman) of a common sort who live out their stage lives within the confines of a single room. The author creates an air of menace through threats conveyed both with language and silence, and acts of violence which suddenly erupt. The language Pinter uses for his characters seems to be that of everyday, colloquial speech typical of a London lower-middle-class family, but it is a crafted rhetoric which carefully, elaborately avoids the use of four-letter words. Regarding the play’s silences, Peter Hall, the director of the original London and New York productions, commented that Pinter wrote in silences as much as he did in words, and the text of the play is specific about the length of time an actor should give to pauses in the language, depending on whether Pinter used either three ellipses, the word “pause,” or the word “silence.”

Another dramatic device is the use of everyday domestic objects as sites for verbal battles. The play opens with Lenny choosing horses from the newspaper and then asking and rejecting Max’s advice over the likely winners. The glass of water used by Ruth in act 1 to tease Lenny sexually is used again when she orders whiskey from Lenny after teasing Joey. When Teddy “deliberately” eats Lenny’s cheese roll, the scene demonstrates Teddy’s ludicrous response to Lenny’s appropriation of Ruth. The threatened violence becomes real when Max strikes Joey in the stomach at the end of act 1, and when Sam collapses of an apparent heart attack at the end of act 2.

While The Homecoming is deeply rooted in its specific setting and family dynamics, it makes minimal reference to the broader world. Nonetheless, the family conflict depicted in the play mirrors the global turbulence of 1965, the year it premiered. At that time, the United States was becoming increasingly entangled in the Vietnam War. U.S. bombers attacked North Vietnam in February 1965, and on March 8, U.S. Marines landed at Da Nang, marking the first deployment of U.S. combat troops in Vietnam. The first major combat offensive by U.S. troops commenced on June 28.

America in 1965 was a reflection of the military escalation's turmoil. Anti-war rallies took place in four American cities, and the term "flower power" was coined by poet Allen Ginsberg to describe peaceful protest. The Hell's Angels motorcycle gang attacked demonstrators, labeling them "un-American." University enrollments surged as young Americans sought draft deferrals for college students to avoid the growing war in Vietnam, leading to heightened campus tensions. Additionally, many young men outright evaded the draft by fleeing to Canada to escape combat duty.

Civil rights leader Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, in Harlem, New York City. The Voting Rights Act was enacted on August 10, prompting federal examiners to begin registering black voters in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In Alabama, civil rights marchers faced attacks from state police using tear gas, whips, nightsticks, and dogs. President Lyndon Johnson deployed three thousand National Guardsmen and military police to protect the civil rights marchers. In Chicago, police arrested 526 anti-segregation demonstrators in June. Violent race riots erupted in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles on August 12. Over ten thousand black residents burned and looted a five hundred square block area, causing an estimated forty million dollars in property damage. Fifteen thousand police and National Guardsmen were deployed, thirty-four people were killed, and nearly four thousand were arrested. More than two hundred businesses were completely destroyed.

Elsewhere in the world, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) unilaterally declared independence from Britain. London deemed the declaration illegal and treasonable, imposing economic sanctions against the country. Demonstrations occurred outside Rhodesia House in London. Despot Nicolae Ceausescu ascended to power in Romania, where he would rule until 1989. In the Independent Congo Republic, General Joseph Mobuto seized power in a coup and declared himself president, ruling as a dictator.

Despite such conflicts (and perhaps because of them), the United States experienced economic growth and prosperity during the mid-1960s. In his State of the Union address, President Johnson outlined programs for a "Great Society" aimed at eradicating poverty in America. Across the Atlantic, conditions were less favorable, as Britain implemented a freeze on wages, salaries, and prices to combat inflation.

In September 1965, President Johnson signed the Federal Aid to the Arts Act, which established the National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities. The United States was the last of the industrialized nations to provide direct support to the arts. In New York City, the Vivian Beaumont Theatre opened its doors at Lincoln Center. Pop Art, exemplified by Andy Warhol's Campbell's Tomato Soup Can painting, and "Op" art gained popularity. The Rolling Stones achieved massive success with their hit song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." The Grateful Dead emerged with their "acid-rock" sound in San Francisco. Meanwhile, the mini-skirt made its debut in London.

The English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre declared itself a "club theatre" to bypass preproduction censorship for Edward Bond's play Saved, which addresses moral decay and violence in working-class London. Off-off-Broadway theatres, established as an alternative to commercial theatre, were increasing in number and demonstrating a commitment to fighting for freedom of speech and artistic expression.

In Hackney, a working-class neighborhood in North London just beyond the Cockney area of the East End, life continued in much the same way it had for generations. In an unpublished autobiographical memoir quoted by Michael Billington in The Life and Work of Harold Pinter, Pinter vividly recalls the Hackney of his youth: "It brimmed over with milk bars, Italian cafes, Fifty Shilling tailors and barber shops. Prams and busy ramshackle stalls clogged up the main street—street violinists, trumpeters, and match sellers. Many Jews lived in the district, noisy but candid; mostly taxi drivers and pressers, machinists and cutters who steamed all day in their workshop ovens. Up the hill lived the richer, the 'better-class' Jews, strutting with their mink-coats and American suits and ties. Bookmakers, jewelers and furriers with shops on Great Portland Street."

Setting

The setting of The Homecoming is portrayed realistically. It features a large room with a window, an archway upstage where a wall has been removed, stairs leading to a second floor, a door to the outside, and a hallway connecting to interior rooms. The furnishings are also realistic, including two armchairs, a large sofa, a sideboard with a mirror above it, and various other chairs and small tables. The set remains unchanged throughout the play.

Plot

The play unfolds over approximately twenty hours and follows a singular plot without any subplots. It adheres to the unities of time, place, and action, as outlined by Aristotle for creating a cohesive and impactful drama. Despite this, audiences and critics were unsettled by both the content and the structure of the play. This discomfort partly stems from the expectation that character backgrounds will be clearly explained. In the realistic tradition of 1965, audiences were accustomed to receiving detailed character backgrounds that would make their actions at the climax and falling action seem logical and reasonable.

Viewers also anticipate a logical cause-and-effect progression leading to the play's resolution. In The Homecoming, the exposition is minimal and not always trustworthy, as characters often fabricate pasts to manipulate the present. For instance, Lenny tells stories of brutalizing women to dominate Ruth during their initial encounter. Initially, audiences are shocked when Ruth chooses to leave her husband and three sons to become a prostitute and 'service' the rest of the family. The denouement features Teddy leaving for the airport, Ruth sitting in a chair with Joey at her feet, Max crawling and begging for a kiss, and Lenny observing in the background. Unlike a realistic play like Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, there is no explicit explanation for the characters' actions. The audience must piece together clues from the action to understand this outcome.

Language

Another unsettling aspect of Pinter's plays is his use of language. Pinter's characters speak with the hesitations, evasions, and non sequiturs typical of everyday conversation. They do not respond to questions with clear, logical answers, as one would expect in a "realistic" play. Instead, Pinter's characters use language to attack, defend, and stall, focusing on the underlying motives rather than the direct meaning of the questions.

Pinter's use of language is intricately tied to tactical maneuvering. He meticulously captures the rhythms of thought and speech, structuring these rhythms with pauses and silences written into the script. These pauses and silences are crucial to the situations and relationships depicted. Although much has been discussed about these techniques, they are not enigmatic to the perceptive actor; they are integral to the characters' thought processes. Pinter explained this clearly in his conversation with Gussow, stating, "The pause is a pause because of what has just happened in the minds and guts of the characters. They spring out of the text. They're not formal conveniences or stresses but part of the body of the action.... And a silence equally means that something has happened to create the impossibility of anyone speaking for a certain amount of time—until they can recover from whatever happened before the silence." However, audiences accustomed to logically coherent dialogue in realistic plays often found Pinter's more elusive—and arguably more "real"—dialogue confusing.

Action

The solution to the issue of dramatic irony is that the audience needs to tune into the subtextual level of the action. Pinter's characters may appear to know more about the events than the audience because they are continuously engaged in a struggle for dominance or mere survival in their harsh world. Although the dialogue might superficially concern a sandwich, an ashtray, or a glass of water, the characters are acutely aware that the true action revolves around leverage—a battle they cannot afford to lose. For Pinter, even the act of moving an ashtray or drinking a glass of water is a significant theatrical gesture. The characters understand this, and eventually, so does the audience.

1965: The feminist movement is beginning, advocating for concrete steps toward social and workplace equality for women.

Today: Although awareness of women's issues has increased and significant progress has been made, inequality persists in many areas of modern society. There has also been some backlash against the more radical feminists.

1965: The Sexual Revolution is underway, promoting sexual freedom for both men and women. Ideas like "Free Love" are encouraged to liberate both mind and body.

Today: Society is more open about sexual matters. Sexual freedom is widespread, and topics that were taboo in 1965 are now openly discussed and depicted in popular media.

1965: Sexual promiscuity is common, with many individuals having multiple sexual partners. Sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis are easily treatable.

Today: There is widespread awareness that promiscuity and casual sex can lead to incurable diseases such as herpes. The AIDS epidemic of the 1980s highlighted the deadly risks associated with sex.

1965: The United States, never having lost a war, is one of two superpowers and is engaged in a "cold war'' with the Soviet Union. The U.S. is also becoming increasingly involved in the Vietnam War.

Today: The United States experienced significant turmoil due to widespread opposition to the Vietnam War, which it ultimately lost. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s has left the U.S. as the world's only superpower.

The Homecoming was adapted into a film in 1973 as part of the American Film Theatre production series. Directed by Sir Peter Hall, it starred the original Royal Shakespeare Company cast: Vivian Merchant as Ruth, Michael Jayston as Teddy, Paul Rogers as Max, Cyril Cusack as Sam, Ian Holm as Lenny, and Terrence Rigby as Joey.

Sources

Elsom, John, Postwar British Theatre Criticism, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981, pp. 155-160.

Gottfried, Martin, Review of The Homecoming in Women's Wear Daily, January 6, 1967.

Grecco, Stephen, "Harold Pinter" in Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, Volume 8, Contemporary Writers, 1960 to the Present, Gale (Detroit), 1992, pp. 315-336.

Kerr, Walter, "The Theatre: Pinter's Homecoming" in the New York Times, January 6, 1967.

Nadel, Norman, "Homecoming Unfathomable" in World Journal Tribune, January 6, 1967.

Salem, Darnel, "The Impact of Pinter's Work" in Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, Vol. 17, no. 1, January 1986, pp. 71-83.

Taylor, John Russell, Review of The Homecoming in Plays and Players, 1953-1968, edited by Peter Roberts, Methuen, 1988, p. 196.

Watts, Richard, "Hospitality of a London Family" in the New York Post, January 6, 1967.

Further Reading

Billington, Michael, The Life and Work of Harold Pinter, Faber & Faber, 1996.
This biography is considered the most comprehensive on Pinter. Billington's commentary on the plays is highly informative. He has been a theatre critic for the Guardian newspaper since 1971.

Burkmann, Katherine H. and John L. Kundert-Gibbs, editors, Pinter at Sixty, Indiana University Press, 1963.
This compilation of essays by scholars and critics provides diverse perspectives on Pinter's body of work.

Esslin, Martin, Pinter: The Playwright, Methuen, 1982.
Originally published in England under the title The Peopled Wound, Esslin's book covers all of Pinter's plays up to Victoria Station (1982) and includes a brief section on his screenplays. Esslin offers profound insights and unparalleled knowledge of European theatre.

Gussow, Mel, Conversations with Pinter, Grove Press, 1994.
Through a series of conversations with Gussow from the New York Times spanning 1971 to 1993, this book provides valuable insights into Pinter's methods and his views on playwriting and life.

Knowles, Ronald, Understanding Harold Pinter, University of South Carolina Press, 1995.
Part of the "Understanding Contemporary Literature" series, this book offers criticism and interpretation, including biographical references.