THE HOMECOMING MELBOURNE REVIEW:
Strange, darkly funny and deliberately uncomfortable, Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming offers few easy answers. Presented by the Australian Shakespeare Company, this provocative production draws audiences into a dysfunctional family where ordinary conversations become power struggles and silence can feel more threatening than words.
The story begins by introducing us to the men living in a crowded East London home: the gruff, domineering Max, his brother Sam, and Max’s sons Lenny and Joey. Their tense exchanges quickly reveal a family shaped by routine, rivalry and resentment. The dynamic shifts when another son, Teddy, unexpectedly returns from America with his wife, Ruth, whose arrival begins to unsettle the household’s balance.
Richard Piper clearly stands out as Max. Grumpy, domineering, and often cruel, he could easily become unlikable, yet Piper finds moments of dark humour in the character. His unpredictable shifts between anger, sentimentality and comedy provide some of the evening’s most entertaining moments.
Greg Carroll’s brooding set design creates a cramped, timeworn family home filled with ageing furniture, faded photographs and remnants of the past. Dark walls and moody red and blue lighting heighten the claustrophobic atmosphere, turning the living room into a pressure cooker for everything left unspoken.
The production becomes considerably stranger and more confronting in the second half. After Ruth’s sensual dance and encounters with Teddy’s brothers, the men casually discuss a deeply troubling arrangement that would let her remain in the household. The way they negotiate her future as though she were a commodity creates some of the play’s most uncomfortable moments.
Kate Kendall brings a cool stillness and ambiguity to Ruth. Rather than passively accepting their proposal, she begins setting her own conditions. Is she taking control of the household, or becoming trapped within its disturbing arrangement? The production deliberately refuses to provide a simple answer.
David Field is also memorable as Sam, Max’s chauffeur brother. Better known for playing hardened characters across Australian film and television, Field brings a softer, more vulnerable and slightly camp quality to the role, creating a striking contrast with Max’s aggressive masculinity.
Not every moment is comfortable or immediately accessible, and some exchanges feel more awkward than captivating. Yet there is something undeniably intriguing about the play’s arthouse sensibility and the family’s increasingly bizarre behaviour.
The Homecoming is unsettling, ambiguous and designed to provoke rather than reassure. I left the theatre unsure exactly how I felt about what I had witnessed, but also wanting to discuss it. Perhaps that uncertainty is precisely the point.
The Homecoming
Presented by the Australian Shakespeare Company
Athenaeum Theatre 2, Melbourne
Until 3 October 2026
Tickets: https://tickets.shakespeareaustralia.com.au/sales/performances/studio/the-homecomin
Review by Craig Lawson.
