The Homecoming

Click here if you liked this article 2

https://www.shakespeareaustralia.com.au/shows/the-homecoming

Date Reviewed: 19/09/2026

Harold Pinter seems to attract the worst kind of audience in Melbourne. Track-suited landlords, aristocratic widows and body-suited second wives, all broken up with a smattering of the corpulent, the drunk, homosexuals, theatre insiders and the worst kind of corporate workers fresh from a long day up the skyscraper.

My point being that sometimes it can be the audience that can ruin a work as delicately framed as Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming. There is something particularly unforgiving about watching theatre in a room full of people determined to announce their appreciation of the work before even begins.

Fortunately, the production itself is considerably more interesting than its audience. The set and costume design is beautiful, bringing the world of the play onto the stage with a precision and atmosphere I haven’t seen in a long time. The acting is restrained and rooted in an unspoken realism, with the cast allowing Pinter’s strange rhythms and silences to do much of the work.

What is most powerful in this revival, however, is the writing. The Homecoming is a clever study of family and class tension, and this production brings that analysis of the work forward masterfully. Pinter leaves a great deal unsaid in his first act, allowing the tension to swell and balloon with a ceaseless determination. Secondary themes emerge over time: the relationships between sons and fathers, the peculiar economies of power within a family, and the ways in which affection and cruelty can become almost indistinguishable.

The absence of Jessie, this mysterious whore-wife hybrid character, is handled superbly in this revival. Her absence becomes its own kind of presence, shaping the strange dynamics that unfold before us.

The pace does slow to a gentle crawl after a while, but this allows the characters to breathe, flex and feel onstage to their fullest extent. Pinter’s humour is essential in this.

As more characters appear onstage, the show becomes more surreal and abstracted. The production understands that Pinter’s world is not entirely realistic, even when the performances are grounded in realism.

The cast handle the material well, with the restraint required by Pinter’s writing never tipping into stiffness. There is a confidence in allowing the play to sit in its silences, its repetitions and its uncomfortable pauses.

This particular revival does tremendous justice to the work of Pinter. It is a marvellous production, motivated by a brilliant cast and some of the best design and direction in this production. The Australian Shakespeare Company have done a truly marvellous job with such delicate material.

Reviewed by Nic