She wasn't such a bad woman. Even though it made me sick just to look at her rotten stinking face, she wasn't such a bad bitch...
The menace and brutality that is characteristic of Harold Pinter's plays is evident in this production, which features some of the amateur company's most talented actors. When Teddy, a professor of philosophy, returns with his wife from America to the grim London house of his birth, he brings her into the centre of a bitter, menacing power struggle. His father, uncle and brothers compete for masculine supremacy whilst dwelling on memories of past hurts and the loss of Jessie, the family's mother.
If you think The Simpsons shows a dysfunctional family, take a look at this one. Suggestions of past mental and sexual abuse are left unexplored and we are left to wonder what events could lead to such hostility between men who both need and hate one another.
This play seems to be examining the position of women in male society and the division of women into adored mothers and despised whores. The insufficiency of this black-and-white view is brought out at first by Max's stories of Jessie, his late wife. His ambiguous feelings for her, worshipping her memory whilst retaining suspicions about her fidelity, are summed up in his ruminations: "Mind you, she wasn't such a bad woman. Even though it made me sick just to look at her rotten stinking face, she wasn't such a bad bitch".
The men are fascinated by the glamorous Ruth and though at first she is aloof she soon starts to use her allure to control them but simultaneously submits to their plans to use her sexually. Ruth is a substitute for Jessie - she is a mother to her unintelligent brother-in-law Joey and a whore to Max. Whether she or they have power is totally ambiguous - at the end of the play, she agrees to cast off Teddy and become a prostitute but calmly lists her conditions and demands. Max has the final word - doubting that they can control her and predicting that she may make fools of them all.
Despite the unfamiliarity (I hope) of the dynamics of this family, the characters are made believeable by some excellent acting and chemistry between the players. In particular, Geoff Longbottom portrayal of Max's musing and mood changes stand out.
The Homecoming was on at the Lace Market Theatre 14-19 June 2004
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