by Harry Duke *

Dysfunctional family dramas have been around since the beginning of theatre (Oedipus Rex, anyone?) Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman are prime examples of American playwrights’ takes on the genre. Leave it to a British playwright to steer that particular breed of drama in a different direction. 

Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming took the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play but just isn’t produced that much anymore, especially when compared to the aforementioned dramas and more modern works like Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County. Why? Maybe because the family dynamic at play in Pinter’s work is really, really dysfunctional, like exponentially dysfunctional. We’re talking jaw-hitting-the-floor dysfunctional. 

Santa Rosa’s Roustabout Theater Professional Ensemble has taken up the challenge with a production running at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts through June 28. 

Meet Max (John Craven), the aging, blustering patriarch of a blue collar British family that shares a North London home where two of Max’s three sons live with him. Lenny (Jared Wright), the middle son, is a “business manager” of sorts who is constantly degrading his father. Joey (Duncan Frost), the youngest, dreams of being a professional boxer though he seems to have taken enough blows to the head already. Max’s mild-mannered brother Sam (Bill Davis),a chauffeur, also resides in the home. Their home life is a constant verbal battle for supremacy and domination of the others. 

Max’s oldest son, Teddy (Jeff Coté), absent for several years due to a relocation to America, arrives at his one-time home one evening accompanied by his wife Ruth (Jess Rankin). It’s Ruth’s arrival, in particular, that disrupts the testosterone-fueled home.

At first, she’s taken for Teddy’s evening “companion”, then she’s welcomed into the family, then she’s really welcomed into the family. Is it Teddy’s homecoming or Ruth’s?

Director Clark Lewis has gathered a cast of Roustabout regulars (and one newcomer) and plopped them on the floor (literally) of the Carsten Cabaret space for this fascinating jet-black comedy(?). The audience surrounds the staging area on three sides. The minimalist set consists of a couch, three chairs, a couple of small tables, and some rugs. A staircase rises from the stage floor to the upstairs bedrooms of the house.  In essence, the audience joins the family in the house. 

Craven is in his element with a role he can do in his sleep. Craven’s Max can be towering and cowering at the same time with venom dripping from his lips in one moment and kindness the next. Wright exudes the appropriate creepiness as Lenny, and Frost’s physicality compensates for the limited dialogue of the dim-bulb that is Joey. Davis is fine as the passive and steady Sam, who you can sense is just waiting to erupt. 

Jeff Coté excels with a solid, disciplined performance as the wayward son who escaped the toxic environment that was his home only to find himself ensnared in it once more, and Jess Rankin stands her ground (in more ways than one) as the catalyst for the latest family skirmish for power.  

The Homecoming is Roustabout’s second stab at Pinter after a well-received production of Betrayal a few years back. Pinter isn’t easy to pull off, and it’s certainly not the type of show your average theatre-goer looks for as they seek comfort in the familiar.  

I’m glad Roustabout does it, especially since they do it well. It’s a terrific evening of uncomfortable theatre.

‘The Homecoming’ runs through June 28 in the Carsten Cabaret at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. 50 Mark West Springs Rd., Santa Rosa. Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. $29–$34 plus fees. 707.546.3600. roustabout-theater.org

Photos by Tamara DeMello/Bella Photography

This review originally ran in an edited version on the website of the North Bay Bohemian.