in preparation to write my own, I’ve been reading a lot of plays lately, and in doing so it’s near impossible to avoid the legendary nobel laureate, Harold Pinter. My current favorite, and most recently read, is The Homecoming.

There’s little I can say without spoiling, but Pinter’s mastery is blatant here. A house of four male, near misogynistic, family members, most outspoken of which is Max, the “scraggy bullying patriarch” are surprised by their fifth member, Teddy, back from America with his new wife. What transpires is a sophisticated and subtle analysis of the inner-workings of relationships; between brothers, fathers and sons and wives and in-laws. And with a twist so brilliant and human, it’ll ruin any Hollywood tale of family forevermore.

New Yorker critic John Lahr says: “‘The Homecoming’ changed my life. Before the play, I thought words were just vessels of meaning; after it, I saw them as weapons of defense. Before, I thought theatre was about the spoken; after, I understood the eloquence of the unspoken. The position of a chair, the length of a pause, the choice of a gesture, I realized, could convey volumes”

Additionally, here is an excerpt from Peter Hall’s 1973 film adaptation: