Harold Pinter | Mumsnet

staceyflack · 2022-05-04T21:51:36+00:00

Aibu to think Pinters play, 'The Homecoming', is complete bollocks. Saw it tonight and didnt enjoy it at all!

CherryRipe1 · 04/05/2022 23:00

Not seen it so can't comment but saw 'The Birthday Party' and that was incomprehensible & boring so probably no, YANBU.

MsTSwift · 04/05/2022 23:05

It was so so odd. Dh and I were with it during the first half just about but the simulated sex with the brother in law while the rest of the family looked on tipped us over the edge.

We briefly had considered taking our 13 year old with us as she likes theatre thank god we didn’t!

Smileandtheworldsmileswithyou · 05/05/2022 04:30

Pinter's work is Absurd, (Theatre of the Absurd) and he used silence and pause a lot in his writing, so it won't be a standard play. I absolutely love his work but it wont be for everyone. There is a lot of subtext in the silence. It depends on the production of course, and I haven't seen this one.

MsTSwift · 05/05/2022 06:48

I wish there had been more silence frankly. Not heard that many misogynistic terms of abuse for a while 🙄.

user1474315215 · 05/05/2022 07:03

Pinter always makes me think of the Emperor's new clothes.

ILoveAnOwl · 05/05/2022 07:22

I saw it a couple of weeks ago so presume the same production. It's a pretty bonkers play, but I thought the cast and director did a good job with what they had!

MsTSwift · 05/05/2022 08:14

Yes actors were excellent- got us thinking know it’s supposed to be absurd and mix things up - well achieved that I guess!

Snoopsnoggysnog · 05/05/2022 08:16

I did the birthday party for English A level. Yes it is supposed to be like that - theatre of the absurd - so you need to have that expectation and not expect a standard story arc. It’s not the most fun to watch onstage imo but I find it quite fascinating to read. Beckett too (Waiting for Godot)

Persephoned · 05/05/2022 08:19

Art is subjective - not everyone likes the same plays, books, films, music etc. So yanbu to dislike it…(ywbu though if you’re surprised at the notion some other people might like different things to you and enjoyed it )

Cazziebo · 05/05/2022 08:24

Pinter fan here! Really love his work. As @Smileandtheworldsmileswithyou says it's absurd drama and I think with Pinter he takes the mundane to the nth degree so that it becomes quite menacing.

The misogyny point is interesting. I think Pinter exposed misogyny by accentuating it. (But as a fan I might be looking at that through a rose tinted lens)

MsTSwift · 05/05/2022 13:05

Yes. The merry prostituting out of family members certainly gave us something to think about! Just glad we didn’t take our 13 year old!

Smileandtheworldsmileswithyou · 05/05/2022 14:04

Yes absolutely, Pinter exposed things by accentuating them. One of his earliest plays (actually his first ever play but written very closely to The Dumb Waiter) is The Room. This highlights misogyny and racial violence. I absolutely love his work and wish I could see more of it, although also great to just read as someone else mentioned on here. Laughing at “I wish there had been more silence in the play”. I teach theatre and am always honest with my students that there are things that I don’t enjoy, you can’t like everything!

MsTSwift · 05/05/2022 16:14

Loved GCSE drama remember our drama teacher taking us to this really shocking but excellent play about feminism porn affect on women etc and coming out pale and making us pledge not to tell our parents 😁

ErickBroch · 05/05/2022 16:50

How funny. Took a partner to see this years ago as they loved him apparently. Paid £70 each to sit and watch a 1hr 20 minute play that was absolutely one of the most boring things I have ever sat through. I think it was The Homecoming too. Awful! He kept telling me I didn't understand the 'themes'... god it was boring and daylight robbery.

AppleKatie · 05/05/2022 16:55

Agreed I hate it. I like Pinter generally and some of his work is masterful.

The homecoming is a misogynistic pile of shite though.

I know what he was trying to do but it is far too complex to achieve its aims. As it stands it appears to just glorify the male gaze and suggest that a woman’s only power is through prostitution.

there are better ways to champion women in theatre. And all of them involve casting more fucking women!

Crumbler · 05/05/2022 17:04

Pinter is highly overrated and emperor's clothes. Boring, incomprehensible and goes nowhere, but you have to pretend to like it otherwise you're a philistine.

Snoopsnoggysnog · 05/05/2022 18:05

ErickBroch · 05/05/2022 16:50

How funny. Took a partner to see this years ago as they loved him apparently. Paid £70 each to sit and watch a 1hr 20 minute play that was absolutely one of the most boring things I have ever sat through. I think it was The Homecoming too. Awful! He kept telling me I didn't understand the 'themes'... god it was boring and daylight robbery.

Haha yes I don’t think I’d pay to watch it. It strikes me as the opposite of Shakespeare, for example, which really needs to be seen performed.