The Homecoming
Harold Pinter · 1965
A philosophy professor brings his wife home to meet his family in North London, and by the end she's staying with them while he goes back alone. Pinter never explains anything. The silences carry as much menace as the dialogue, and the dialogue is terrifying. It's a play about territorial power disguised as a family reunion.
The case against
Why does Teddy hand his wife to his family and fly home without a fight? Pinter will not say, and your patience for that refusal decides everything. Ruth, the lone woman, becomes a shared sexual arrangement the play declines to judge; whether that is critique or indulgence remains a fair fight.
Drama · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
