Southern Literature is most renowned for intra-familial struggle. In the dense thickets covering north Mississippi, between the heat and the mosquitoes, it is easy to understand why Thomas Sutpen is such a beast. The silences between Sutpen and his liege Wash are the signposts where Faulkner ratchets up the tension, purposely reducing our understanding of their past and present relationship. In those same silences, the words they simply will not say to each other reverberate in our skulls. Then the tension breaks, the heat dies down, and an uncomfortable detente is achieved.
Playwright Harold Pinter is also famous for these small-scale, claustrophobic battles. On stages presented at their most bare, you are left to examine the space between objects and people to gain a better understanding of just who they are. There are very few verbal cues. As in life, unspoken communication is where the most information crosses the gap and is the source of any confusion. They want to call 1957’s “The Room” “theatre of the absurd.” It is anything but that. In a play that moves along both as a dark comedy and terrifying drama, the assumptions one has to make prove to be its engine.
Also set in “a room in a large house,” 1964’s “The Homecoming” is all about the distance between a family (this one larger) in a house whose space implies the void that overarches all their lives. In the beginning, the chairs give away the pecking order. Hierarchy is a very important aspect of most Pinter works. Like Pinter disciple David Mamet’s 1984 play, “Glengarry Glen Ross” (a work that Pinter was instrumental in bringing to London), knowing who dominates and who is non-combative is as important as the words they shout at each other. “The Homecoming” quickly establishes that Max, the grizzled patriarch occupies the high-back upholstered chair. The rest of the boys sit on hard wooden uncushioned table chairs.
Immediately, Max is railing against his two sons. Joey, demolitions by day and boxer by night, proves to have no fight in this household. Lenny, diminutive but observant, seems to say so little to keep from letting on how sinister he is or could be. Then there is Sam, Max’s younger brother, chauffeur, and diametric opposite. When Sam comes home after being called “the best chauffeur I have ever had” by a client, Max rails against him for never learning the family business of being a butcher and lionizes his more masculine running buddy Mac. This interaction defines the parameters of their relationship for the rest of the play.
Given boundaries to exist within, now the brothers become more defined. Joey is a stooge with an expressionless automaton-like devotion. Lenny is a loner in a house that is defined by loss. At one point while examining the large room, Max points out that an entire wall was removed but Pinter’s skill with implication through their pauses in dialogue reveals more than a soliloquy or recounting of the tale ever could.
With so much conflict inherent in this house, it is hard to imagine why the third son Teddy would think it would be a good idea to come visit unannounced in the middle of the night. In addition to the surprise of his visit, he is also bringing his wife of nine years, Ruth, to the house for the first time. Within any work, mistakes in judgment tend to be powderkegs designed to set characters off and put events in motion. While the late-night arrival is by no means destined for a smooth landing, the acceptance of the couple by the family is what truly makes the mood uneasy.
After a rocky start (and really whose elder family members would not see an action like this as a premeditated disturbance), the family dines together the next day without incident. Max is the true patriarch before Ruth. The glint in his eyes welcomes news of their success and family in America. However, as the conversation turns, we as readers feel the rise in competition between Teddy and Lenny. At once, there is an order in their household that was not there before and a new source of conflict within that structure.
In an interview with Charlie Rose from 2001, Pinter was asked which play gives him the most “satisfaction.” After some thought, he says “The Homecoming” because of “the shape of it, the way it sits there” as well as its “authority.”
Where disorder takes over is in the equally claustrophobic “The Dumb Waiter,” Pinter’s third play written in 1957. (Pinter wrote 29 plays in his lifetime. Every one was a hit). With two characters trapped in one “room,” the similarities to the two aforementioned works are notable. However, more importantly, their interactions and how they tend to “circle” one another in veiled mistrust while openly understanding the survival of one depends on the other could be an extension of Vladimir and Estragon from Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting For Godot.” In Psychological terms, if “The Homecoming” was some manner of Stanford Prison Experiment, “The Dumb Waiter” is a classic zero-sum game.
The setup is even more like an experiment. Two men. Two beds. One job (never explained, but always looming). One dumb waiter delivering messages from the world above. The most shrewd member, Ben, barely moves during Act One, hiding behind his newspaper, recalcitrant toward every question or request thrown at him. Gus does all of his thinking with his mouth open and cannot stop moving around the room like a hamster. An envelope is slid under a door, and they both react with fear and guns drawn. The dumb waiter rumbles to life, they gaze into the passage hoping it will bring satisfaction, perhaps even communication from above.
All the while, the two men are trading bits of information back and forth. The stories in the newspaper all inspire the same “The world is getting worse” answer. Do men with guns have morals? Even expectations? Much like “The Homecoming,” there is a definite power structure and we must abide by it. With no gas and food, they are forced to make concessions and compromises. Of course, there is concealment. Where “The Homecoming” separates the threads of past and present, “The Dumb Waiter” mixes them up. For instance, Gus is saving his crisps for the future. This leaves us to wonder do they really have one. Matches are delivered in an envelope. Gus’ stash of snacks is their only means of power and the real definition of the two existing as a team.
All these assertions and assumptions from characters are in minimal space. A world of possibilities drawn together with no true plot. Everything that you see on stage is not really what it is. They even debate about it in “The Homecoming.” Teddy and Lenny have a philosophical discussion over what Lenny describes as “the business of being and not-being.” Lenny offers the table as an example. After Teddy says flatly “A table is a table.” Lenny retorts, “Ah, you mean it’s nothing else but a table. Well, some people would envy your certainty - wouldn’t they Joey? For instance, I’ve got a couple of friends of mine, we often sit round the Ritz Bar having a few liqueurs, and they’re always saying things like that, you know, things like: Take a table, take it. All right, I say, take it, take a table, but once you’ve taken it, what you going to do with it? Once you got hold of it, where you going to take it?”
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Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
New Music this Week
TAYLOR SWIFT - Speak Now
(Taylor's Version)[3LP/2CD/2CS](Republic)
For her third album of re-recordings of previous works, Taylor Swift stitches back the years between 18-20. "Speak Now" reconstructs the original 14 tracks from the 2010 album. "Ours" and "Superman," which were originally bonus tracks, are added for good measure. The final six songs are Taylor diving back into her vault consisting of songs left off the album. For this re-visitation, Taylor invites her original inspirations to help the cause as both Fall Out Boy and Paramore's Hayley Williams appear.
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD - PetroDragonic Apocalypse [2LP](KGLW)
On their surprise Metal album, King Gizzard strip their Metallic thrust from "Infest The Rats' Nest" back from its Slayer-esque double-kick gallop to a classic NWOBHM-meets-Nineties Metal style. The songs are as ambitious (and edited together) as those found on "Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs" (one of 2022's best) reaching for stadium-ready Rock-opera status. While it is not a neck-breaker like "Rats," there are some slamming grooves here including the howling "Motor Spirit" and the Jazz/Thrash odyssey that is "Dragon." However, "Gila Monster" and especially "Flamethrower" see the prolific band reaching for new heights on their 22nd(!) album in eleven years.
LITTLE DRAGON - Slugs of Love [LP/CD](Ninja Tune/Redeye)
GUS DAPPERTON - Henge [LP/CD](Tell Me Why/Warner)
Swedish group Little Dragon is long overdue for some manner of Pop success. So, they leap ahead of their regrouping on 2020's "New Me, Same Us" to create an Electronic Danceable Pop sound that cannot be beaten. "Tumbling Dice" is spartan falsetto Electronic Soul. The title cut is a pulsating New Wave wonder. While "Frisco" richly deserves to be a hit single with its Dancefloor-ready Funk/Disco pumping sound and an R&B-radio-ready chorus too. "Slugs of Love" puts Modern Pop in all the right places and should do more than dent the Dance charts.
Gus Dapperton has a unique sound and idea about how Electronic and R&B can be fused into Modern Pop. However fantastic his production (with BENEE) is on tracks like "Sunset," his songwriting is strictly by the numbers. While "Henge" basks in the light of love, Dapperton regularly dispenses cliches despite talking about how it has never been like this before.
SMOKEY BRIGHTS - Levitator [LP/CD](Nine Mile/Redeye)
On their fourth album, the Seattle quartet shows a lot more connection than before. As a result, the songs come from raw, live recordings, not a means to promote their stylistic mastery. Kim West and Ryan Devlin are definitely working on that husband-and-wife chemistry that could appeal to Fleetwood Mac fans. West's "Just Wanna Be Yours" and the harmonious "Resolutions" (with a cool synth part) bode well for hits - yet again, are not written to impress. "Resolutions" finds its easy pace quickly and smartly rests on it, allowing the building chords to push the chorus toward its resolution. The more Poppy "Just Wanna Be Yours" tells a great story, and unveils a fantastic pre-chorus to New Wave chorus surprise. However, that second verse is truly something special. Kudos to not being serious or jokey, just hitting it right down the middle - as future major leaguers would do.
JADU HEART - Derealised [LP](VLF/AMPED)
London's Shimmer Pop duo Jadu Heart has found the most beguiling way to pay tribute to both Shoegazers My Bloody Valentine and the homemade Indie Rock of the Nineties. By keeping the drums and guitar parts tighter, Diva Sacha-Jeffreys' vocals wrap around the tautness of the songs themselves. "Cocoon" is their closest to a Shoegaze jam, but Jadu Heart pushes it ahead like subtle Britpop. "Blame" and "Freedom" are their double feature of singleworthy tracks. "Blame" develops beautifully into a New Order-ish gem with dreamy vocals. While "Freedom" pushes Jadu Heart into Pop turned upside down. Sacha-Jeffreys and Alex Headford have excellent voices for this time of Cure-ian gloomy Pop where the bright, bouncy chorus momentarily pushes away the clouds. While they finally go after those MBV sonics on the "When You Sleep"-ish "I Shimmer," Jadu Heart sounds like modern Alt.Pop group shelving all their well-constructed parts perfectly.
