Max (Shmuel Shilo), the father, comes in asking “Where are the scissors?” but the only sharp implement this family needs is their tongue, as they lash out at one another with practiced skill in Harold Pinter’s Homecoming, a Negev Theatre Production.
Taking place in the heart of the family, the one arena where it’s always “gloves off” – the audience has ringside seats to this match as the action takes place in the center of the room, with seats around all four sides, slightly above the stage. Director Issy Mamanov has created an almost frightening intimacy, just right for Pinter’s uncanny sense of the bonds of dominance, manipulation, and violence that keep a family together.
The fight for survival in this working class family does not offer many options: you can work with your hands like son Joey (Dudu Golan) in demolition; you can work it, like Lenny (Oren Yadgar) in his shiny black shirt and shady dealings; or you can get out, like Teddy (Elhai Levit). It’s a very male household: Max, the father, a retired butcher; his two sons Joey and Lenny; and his brother Sam (Yossi Carmon) a chauffeur. The boys are grown, but live at home, their mother Jessie, has apparently been dead for several years. Teddy is a Professor of Philosophy, married and living in America with his wife Ruth (Shira Farber), three children and swimming pool. It is to this home that Teddy brings the cool blonde Ruth, to meet his family.
As it turns out, the immaculate Ruth is a neighborhood girl after all. Initially distant and reserved, the action between Ruth and the men in the family soon sizzles as we all get to know Ruth more intimately.
Spending a couple of hours with this family is like riding a roller-coaster without a seatbelt: exhilarating and dangerous. As they have a go at one another in one way or another – verbally, violently, sexually – the tension in the room is almost painful. Mamnov makes wonderful use of the space with the actors and the minimalist set design works well with this play, in which the impact of what remains unsaid is the most potent. All aspects of the play take their cue from Pinter – expressing precisely what is necessary, without a superfluous expression, ornament or gesture. Dalit Inbar has costumed the cast with a great sense of character and fun, pimping Lenny in stylish red and black and creating a perfectly rumpled Max, wife-beater, suspenders and all.
The cast is wonderful, each in their own twisted way. Shmuel Shilo won the 2009 Kipod Zahav Fringe Theatre Award for his portrayal of Max – a man’s man, the over-bearing, physically and emotionally abusive butcher-father, who is aggressive in equal proportions to his insecurity and neediness, a great actor in a great role. Oren Yadgar seethes with barely controlled rage as the slick Lenny. Smooth-talking, nasty, with a perverse charm and a maniacal gleam in his eye, his taunting presence in this game of one-upmanship is mesmerizing, walking a tight-rope between explosive anger and madness.
Although they are the extroverts in the family, the quieter members exert a strong force as well. Yossi Carmon as Sam, Max’s brother who never married, has a quiet eloquence of expression; he plays a very different chord in the family harmony, with a certain air of mystery, he might be the only family member who is actually…likeable. Joey is a hunk, in every sense of the word; Dudu Golan exudes a wonderfully inarticulate sexiness, and it’s a lot of fun to watch the ‘outsiders’ Elhai Levit as Teddy, and Shira Farber as Ruth, gradually open up and make themselves at home. It’s quite a homecoming – the Negev Theatre production is an unsettling and thrilling experience.
Next performances of Homecoming: April 3 at 20:30 & April 22 at 13:00, Tzavta, 30 Ibn Gvirol Street, Tel Aviv, 03-6950156/7
Homecoming by Harold Pinter, translated by Avi Oz
Director: Issi Mamanov
Set design: Michaela Lika
Costume design: Dalit Inbar
Lighting design: Shmuel Mor
Music: Doron Shalom
Cast (in order of appearance): Max – Shmuel Shiloh; Lenny – Oren Yadgar; Sam – Yossi Carmon; Joey – Dudu Golan; Ruth – Shira Farber; Teddy – Elhai Levit
