A disquieting ‘Homecoming’

Young Chang

Harold Pinter’s “Homecoming” incited recent theatergoers to write

bravo letters to South Coast Repertory’s directors for having the guts to

stage a piece so truthful.

Others wrote that they were repulsed by the show, not to mention

disturbed and shocked by Pinter’s examination of our primitive ways.

Some walked out before the show ended.

“But I think that’s fine,” said Colette Kilroy, the sole woman in the

five-person cast. “I think we’re doing our job if we don’t shy away from

the edginess. I think it has to live in a place that is daring and

provocative.”

Kilroy hesitated when asked if she could sum up the story. To sum up

her character Ruth. To boil down, just for the sake of it, the point of

it all.

She took awhile to start speaking. It’s so visceral and raw, Kilroy

began, that it’s difficult to really articulate anything.

“I think Pinter’s hitting on something,” she finally said. “I could

find the logical through line, but what I find so fascinating about him

is he seems to write on the subconscious level well. He’s kind of

dreamlike in it.”

“Homecoming,” which will close on SCR’s Mainstage on Nov. 18, is about

an all-male household that is changed when a woman arrives. Every word is

laden with mystery. Every sentence is economical and of dual purpose.

Every character is raw.

“These men go all the way back to the cavemen, and Ruth goes all the

way back to the cavewomen. It’s a tremendously primal play, and that’s

one of the things I found so glorious about it,” said director Martin

Benson, also a co-founder of SCR.

Max, a sharp-tongued, bitter, retired butcher, lives in London with

his sons Joey and Lenny. Joey, training to be a boxer, is the most

softhearted of the three. Lenny, always in a harsh, sleek suit, is the

difficult son constantly at war with his dad.

Max’s brother Sam is gentle, compassionate and a chauffeur.

Max’s wife, Jessie, has long passed away.

And then Ruth arrives with her philosopher husband, Teddy, Max’s

oldest son.

“Ruth’s power is in her stillness,” Kilroy said. “And her power comes

from a feminine side of her. It’s a feminine strength.”

Teddy is a man of words. He philosophizes about life and situations

instead of getting lost in them. He is conventional and seemingly content

participating in life from a distance. But Ruth has a hunger and thirst

to be needed, to be sensual, to get lost in the thick of things.

Her needs get met in this household of men -- each of whom she affects

in different ways.

“I think all these men are looking for mothers,” said Kilroy, a Malibu

mother of two. “And Ruth gets tremendous satisfaction in being the

mother. She wants to have sex, she’ll be the mother to Joey, she’ll do

the business transactions with Lenny.”

The title “Homecoming” refers to Teddy’s return home, to the men’s

return to a sense of home with the arrival of a woman, and also to Ruth’s

return home -- the place which brings her back to life.

“She will be able to live out these different parts of herself with

these different men,” Kilroy said. “She will be able to express herself.

And the thing is, Ruth must express herself. She can’t be boxed in.”

Pinter’s piece is as much about the characters’ pauses as their words.

A dreamlike quiet, interrupted by both a startling numbness and startling

emotion, hangs over the production.

The mystery was alive behind the curtains too. The actors kept

secrets, hesitant to give away too much of their characters.

“It’s been a process in which a lot hasn’t been discussed,” Kilroy

said. “Our game is to throw each other off.”

The effect is that “Homecoming” hits people where they’re not used to

being hit.

“That was Pinter’s aim. To sit up and take notice, to bring our

attention to something not comfortable,” Kilroy said. “And it might not

be the healthiest place, but we all return home.”

FYI

* WHAT: “Homecoming”

* WHEN: Through Nov. 18, 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2:30 and 8

p.m. Saturday, and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday

* WHERE: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

* COST: $27-$52

* CALL: (714) 708-5555