Post Modern Absurdism: Pinter's Homecoming
EQ: Why is Harold Pinter's The Homecoming an important postmodern drama?
The play, The Homecoming is considered to be Pinter's finest work. It is also an interesting mix between post-modern absurdism and theater of cruelty. Key themes found in the play based on the time period that Pinter was writing include his commentary on:
Alienation and Loneliness
Emotional impotence
Power Play/Struggle in Different Forms
Appearance and Reality
Oedipal Desires/Incest/Inordinate Desire
Capitalism/Materialism
Feminism/Women Liberation
From: enotes: "The Homecoming, now considered by many critics to be Harold Pinter's masterpiece, was not universally admired when it was first produced in England by the Royal Shakespeare Company at London's Aldwych Theatre, on June 3, 1965. Many critics, while praising the production directed by Peter Hall, found the play itself to be baffling and enigmatic. The Broadway opening of The Homecoming on January 3, 1967, at the Music Box Theatre was greeted with great excitement, the production had a long run in spite of some negative reviews. The Homecoming won a Tony Award and was voted best new play by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. This success established Pinter's reputation in New York, opening the door to widespread production of his subsequent work. While baffled by the fact that the startling action of the play seemed to lack any rational explanations, both critics and audiences responded to Pinter's gift for dramatic suspense and sharp, biting comedy. As John Russell Taylor put it in Plays and Players magazine, "The secret of the play does not lie in our providing a neat crossword-puzzle solution" Despite—and perhaps because of—the play's ambiguity, The Homecoming has remained a centerpiece in Pinter's canon."
Pinter: Homecoming scene with Ian Holm from Peter Hall's 1973 film version of the play.
The play, The Homecoming is considered to be Pinter's finest work. It is also an interesting mix between post-modern absurdism and theater of cruelty. Key themes found in the play based on the time period that Pinter was writing include his commentary on:
- Gender inequality
- major world wars with high toll of human casualty.
- Technology growing at an alarming rate, creating various problems within capitalism.
- Moral decay & extreme poverty vs. conservatism, wealth, and power structures
- The meaninglessness of life; human beings as powerless under a greater force
- Questioning the existence of God
- Unreliability of human communication
- A mixture of farce and tragedy
- Symbolic characters or events
Alienation and Loneliness
Emotional impotence
Power Play/Struggle in Different Forms
Appearance and Reality
Oedipal Desires/Incest/Inordinate Desire
Capitalism/Materialism
Feminism/Women Liberation
From: enotes: "The Homecoming, now considered by many critics to be Harold Pinter's masterpiece, was not universally admired when it was first produced in England by the Royal Shakespeare Company at London's Aldwych Theatre, on June 3, 1965. Many critics, while praising the production directed by Peter Hall, found the play itself to be baffling and enigmatic. The Broadway opening of The Homecoming on January 3, 1967, at the Music Box Theatre was greeted with great excitement, the production had a long run in spite of some negative reviews. The Homecoming won a Tony Award and was voted best new play by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. This success established Pinter's reputation in New York, opening the door to widespread production of his subsequent work. While baffled by the fact that the startling action of the play seemed to lack any rational explanations, both critics and audiences responded to Pinter's gift for dramatic suspense and sharp, biting comedy. As John Russell Taylor put it in Plays and Players magazine, "The secret of the play does not lie in our providing a neat crossword-puzzle solution" Despite—and perhaps because of—the play's ambiguity, The Homecoming has remained a centerpiece in Pinter's canon."
Pinter: Homecoming scene with Ian Holm from Peter Hall's 1973 film version of the play.
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