The Homecoming

The Homecoming is a two-act play written in 1964 and published in 1965 by Harold Pinter. Its premières in London (1965) and New York (1967) were both directed by Sir Peter Hall. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play. Its 40th-anniversary Broadway production at the Cort Theatre was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for "Best Revival of a Play". Set in North London, the play has six characters. Five of these are men of the same family: Max, a retired butcher; his brother Sam, a chauffeur; and Max's three sons: Teddy, a philosophy professor in the United States; Lenny, a pimp who only makes discreet references to his "occupation" and his clientele and flats in the city (London); and Joey, a brute training to become a professional boxer and who works in demolition. The sixth character is a woman, Ruth, Teddy's wife. The play concerns Teddy's and Ruth's "homecoming", which has distinctly different symbolic and thematic implications. In the initial productions (as well as a 1973 film adaptation), Pinter's first wife, Vivien Merchant, played Ruth.