The Homecoming

I gave myself an early B-day present by going to "The Homecoming".

The cast alone for this show is enticing but so is the playwright - Pinter. I hadn't seen a theatre production of Pinter's yet. I'd seen "Sleuth" where he wrote the screenplay but that was it.

I knew going into the show that it would probably be a mind messer, but I still sat there trying to figure out where it was going and "the point". Eventually I just had to focus on the acting. Ian McShane is good - but seems a bit overdone in the yelling department, especially for Pinter. I had never seen Raul Esparza act on stage and it was fascinating how he gave his menacing character an edge that still seemed attractive, even though you knew he was bad news. Michael McKean had the task of being on stage but not saying a lot. I made a point of trying to watch him during all the action just to see how he was handling that as an actor. (Of course, then I was missing out on the action! ;)) But as far as I'm concerned the leader of the pack was Eve Best. She plays a VERY complex character and from what I know/heard of how to handle Pinter scripts she was spot on.

As the curtain fell on the final scene and the audience sat there trying to process what they just saw - the curtain had trouble tumbling past a couch on stage. Then...when the curtain call came it only rose to the knees of the actors. Legs fidgeted as you could tell the actors weren't quite sure what to do and then Michael & Raul lifted the curtain up and popped out their heads waving and being goofy. Finally the curtain raised and the impromptu moment was somewhat of a needed levity for the evening.