The Homecoming_REVIEW_18 Sept 2026 ****

 THEATRE

Written by Harold Pinter

At: Atheneum 2, Collins St. Melbourne until 3 Oct 2026

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: **** (4)

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly, 3MBS, Sat 19 Oct 2026. KH

Richard Piper image Ben Fon

Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming is a comedy of menace, where seemingly ordinary conversations conceal a seething undercurrent of resentment, jealousy, envy, sexual craving and barely repressed violence. In this tightly controlled Melbourne production, director Greg Carroll keeps the tension bubbling beneath the surface until it erupts.

Teddy (Peter Houghton) and his wife Ruth (Kate Kendall) arrive unexpectedly at his childhood home in North London, where his father Max (Richard Piper), brothers Lenny (Ben Geurens) and Joey (Eddie Orton), and Uncle Sam (David Field) still live. Teddy has been living in America, teaching philosophy at a university after completing a PhD. His brothers have very different occupations: Joey is a boxer and demolition worker, while Lenny’s mysterious profession is revealed much later.

The family’s reaction to Teddy’s return is anything but welcoming.

Peter Houghton, Kate Kendall-Richard Piper image Ben Fon

Pinter’s famous pauses are lethal. The men pause, we wait, and an entire additional layer of the script seems to take place in the silence. A stare can become a threat; a seemingly innocuous sentence can conceal an attack. Carroll understands this perfectly, allowing the actors to inhabit the pauses rather than rushing to fill them.

Act One is disturbing but peppered with black comedy as the family’s rivalries and resentments surface. Act Two is shocking and alarming, with startling revelations and sharp turns in the narrative. It is a triple somersault with pike.

Richard Piper, Ben Geurens, David Field-image Ben Fon

Written in 1964 and first staged in 1965, The Homecoming still feels remarkably contemporary. This is a house full of men engaged in an escalating power game, with aggression and bullying masking weakness and ineffectuality. The family hierarchy, once apparently fixed, begins to shift as the characters test their status and power.

Piper’s Max is mercurial and volatile, alternating abuse with praise and sudden affection. Houghton’s Teddy responds with intellectual superiority, while Kendall’s Ruth is a fascinating presence, employing manipulation, flirtation and seduction rather than physical aggression.

Most sympathetic is Field’s Uncle Sam, the one man who seems least equipped for this brutal contest and consequently becomes its victim.

Carroll’s direction creates a volcanic atmosphere: we hear the rumbling, see the wisps of smoke and remain on tenterhooks waiting for the next eruption. Misogyny, sexism, toxic masculinity and family dysfunction are embedded in this brutal household.

What does marriage mean? What are the expectations of love and family? And are these people immoral, or simply amoral? Pinter leaves us with unsettling questions rather than comfortable answers. 

By Kate Herbert 

Cast

Teddy - Peter Houghton

Ruth -Kate Kendall

Max - Richard Piper

Lenny - Ben Geurens

Joey - Eddie Orton

 Sam - David Field

 

Creative Team

Director & Designer - Greg Carroll

Soundscape – Paul Norris

Lighting Design – Peter Amesbury

Costumes – Amelia Carroll & Margaret Goy

 

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