Fancy a pinter?

It's pretty wonderful when a theatre is stilled by the power of a woman. That's exactly what happens in the Gate Theatre's current production of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming. The woman in question is actress Lia Williams and before I go any further I must say that by singling out the single female in a magnificent ensemble cast that also includes Ian Holm, Ian Hart, Jason O’Mara, Nick Dunning and, only marginally less successfully, John Kavanagh, I'm not being sexist. It's just that watching this 1964 play performed in 2001 really does make one question all those claims that Pinter is a misogynist and puts women such as Ruth, in his plays, through all kinds of degradation.

To even proffer that argument is to misunderstand Pinter. He puts all his characters through shit! Either way, Lia Williams regards The Homecoming as an "extraordinary" play. And she's not new to Pinter, having also performed in The Lover and The Collection, among her many stage, film and TV credits.

"The thing that separates playing Pinter from playing anything else is that it is like being a trapeze artist" she explains."You really have to balance everything about yourself and your character right on the edge. It is like pulling a wire tighter and tighter all the way through the play. If you let that go the play falls. Because Pinter is not naturalism, it's a style and a lot of Pinter can go wrong because that's not understood."

Indeed, Pinter himself has said he focuses on characters "at the extreme edge of their living, where they are pretty much alone." This, says Lia, is also what excites her about playing Pinter.

"There also is something so visceral about his writing and so economical that makes it very hard and difficult, but when it's right there is nothing more exciting. And Pinter came to see the show Friday night and said that Ruth probably is the greatest female role he's ever written."

That's all relative, feminist critics might say. But Lia believes that for Pinter to have created such a "staggeringly powerful" role for a woman in 1964 is the definitive answer to those critics. And that the seat of her character's power is her sexuality. But the way Lia interprets that power, and presents it on stage, is subtle, understated, all the more truly erotic because of that.

"That was the hardest thing to get, because this mustn't be played sexuality" she explains."It must be an innate eroticism which comes from right down deep inside. Its not like 'if I do this with my leg, it will be sexy.' It's nothing to do with that. It's to do with the gut. And I hope I got it right."

When I tell Lia that there was "a sharp intake of breath" in the theatre during some of her seduction scenes she laughs and says "that's marvellous." But there also were, of course, those questions raised about whether or not Pinter was degrading this female. To serve the sexual fantasies of the men on stage, in the play, and in the audience.

"I read Michael Billington's book on Pinter and he thought this was quite a feminist role" says Lia. "There are those other interpretations who do say Harold is misogynist and that Ruth is appallingly used in this play. And how can an actress subject herself to that kind of nonsense. I think that is short-sighted and I think they've missed the essence of the play. This woman ends up totally in control, having taken over the house. She quietly moved the men aside and moved herself in."

And that, in the end, is a redeeming feature of the play. Which, along the way, does have some relatively disturbing sexual scenes involving Lia slowly "servicing" one-by-one the sons of the father around whom this play revolves. Until Ruth arrives. To tell anymore would be the give the play away. Let's just say it really is about a homecoming. In every sense.

The Homecoming will be followed at the Gate Theatre by Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, which opens on July 10th. It will be directed by Alan Stanford and includes among its cast Lynn Cahill, Susan Fitzgerald and Fiona O'Shaughnessy.