Thursday, October 27, 2011
My Life at the Theater: THE HOMECOMING
LANGUAGE ALERT!
Saw this mesmerizing production of Harold Pinter's THE HOMECOMING last weekend at Stratford's Shakespeare Festival.
Realized midway through, this was the second time we had seen it. The first time was at the English Theater in Amsterdam in 1997 when we saw an equally fantastic production with Michael Sheen playing the pimp brother. It had just played the West End and probably went back there afterward.
This is a difficult play-Pinteresque you might say. It careens from humor to danger to pathos in seconds. Loved it. Just rented the movie from the library. Anyone seen it? I think this is the only Pinter play I have seen on stage although I have seen some of the films.
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5 comments:
I'm not a big Pinter fan (or maybe that's an understatement). The one that stands out for me was NO MAN'S LAND in London in 1975, because it starred John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.
Jeff M.
Well, he is difficult, obtuse, a snob, a pantser. But I like unpredictability sometimes and this has it.
I love Pinter--especially the humor, vicious though some of it is, and (of course) the ominous pauses. I think I've seen all of the movies ("Accident" was on TCM not too long ago). I saw a production of "The Birthday Party" at a small theater in L.A. about 25 years ago. If you haven't already read it, do read Antonia Fraser's MUST YOU GO? about her 30-year relationship with Pinter.
I have it on reserve at the library. Dying to read it.
Patti - I haven't seen this play although I read it a long, long time ago. I'm sure that it's much, much more absorbing when it's staged than just reading...
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