Skip to main content
Smoke-filled living room
WILL STONE admires a revival of Pinter’s dark exploration of male chauvinism and sexuality
(L - R) Nicolas Tennant, Jared Harris, Robert Emms and David Angland in The Homecoming

The Homecoming
Young Vic

SMOKE as thick as fog looms across a large room in a ’60s London home as free jazz blares out from an old gramophone on the floor in Moi Tran’s atmospheric set for director Matthew Dunster’s revival of The Homecoming, one of Harold Pinter’s darkest plays.

The Big Smoke it may be, but it soon becomes apparent that in this testosterone-fuelled house everyone smokes like chimneys. There are no women (yet) only bitter and broken men.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Kelly Lee Owens
Music review / 5 April 2025
5 April 2025
WILL STONE appreciates an artist who can swerve from industrial noise to clubby trance pop without missing a step
HOMOSEXUAL REPRESSION: Kingsley Ben-Adir as Brick and Seb Ca
Theatre Review / 19 December 2024
19 December 2024
‘There's outrage aplenty in this production but we never quite get to the dark night of the soul,’ writes WILL STONE
INNOVATION: High energy duets that are mixed with chorus lin
Ballet / 29 October 2024
29 October 2024
WILL STONE applauds a quartet of dance vignettes exploring the joys and sorrows of the human condition
Similar stories
dealers
Theatre Review / 30 April 2025
30 April 2025

MARY CONWAY applauds the revival of a tense, and extremely funny, study of men, money and playing cards

LOOKING FOR JUSTICE: David Shields as Jacob Dunne in Punch
Theatre Review / 10 March 2025
10 March 2025
MARY CONWAY admires an accomplished drama that explores the consequences of a fatal punch on a desolate housing estate
DEADLY DYNASTICS: Mark Bonnar, Steffan Rhodri, and Stanley M
Theatre Review / 12 December 2024
12 December 2024
MARY CONWAY applauds a worthy revival of the US 1939 classic drama that studies the dehumanising consequences of affluence
Ramin Karimloo and Anoushka Lucas in A Face in the Crowd
Theatre review / 23 September 2024
23 September 2024
PETER MASON appreciates the songs and spectacle but misses attention-grabbing intrigue in Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of the US movie