THE HOMECOMING AND THE PILLOWMAN

The Homecoming and The Pillowman

The Homecoming and the Pillowman

The Pillowman is not a story for the weak hearted or minded. It is also a story unmistakably written by the great Irish playwright, Martin McDonagh. He doesn't shirk away from violence or uncomfortable relationships, pain, or death. The Pillowman is no exception. The Homecoming is Pinter's most tumultuous full-length play as menacing as The Birthday Party, as secret as Old Times but so full of untamed absolutely crucial life that inquiries about its significance appear lesser if not superfluous. One need not characterise life when one can issue to it, which is what Pinter is doing in The Homecoming, with marvellous command of overstated dialect and sign that have the effect of a fluoroscope. Pinter holds giving us glimpses of central furies that most of us favour not to accept in the daytime.

For some peculiar cause these glimpses are often hilariously funny. It may be that we joke at the outrageous demeanour of the Cockney family in The Homecoming for the identical cause that we joke that the awful things that occur to individual characteristics in slapstick comical presentation, because it's occurrence to them and not to us.

If certain characters are looked at individually though, we see many things that happen are positive for that person. The play would seem to centre around Teddy as he was the one returning home to his family. In fact, the attention is focused on Ruth. Max's first reaction to her is abusive and he immediately calls Ruth a tart: 'We've had a stinking pox-ridden slut in my house all night.' This shows us how Max views women as he has never even set eyes on Ruth before this meeting. His words do not shock anyone and appear to be perfectly acceptable and normal. Even Teddy does not seem to surprised about this and although he does protest he is not particularly forceful. He seems to realise that there is no point in arguing with his father as he would not listen and I suspect that Teddy is used to his father's ignorance and anti-female words. Ruth also does not try to defend herself or get upset. She is totally calm and surveys the scene silently with the same confidence she had expressed with Lenny the night before. From the very beginning of the play we are given an idea of their attitude to women. We learn that there is no woman in the household because Max's wife Jessie had died. It later becomes clear that Lenny is a pimp and owns flats in which to conduct his business, Sam is a chauffeur and it is easy to believe that the people he drives around are clients of Lenny's girls. When Lenny first meets Ruth he tells her about a meeting under a bridge with a girl who offered herself to him but whom he was sure was diseased. (Martin McDonagh, The Pillowman 2003)

McDonagh starts The Pillowman with three men ...