Maybe Harold Pinter missed a trick when he neglected to include country and western show tunes in The Homecoming. Liverpool writer Jeff Young rectifies that omission with this deeply mysterious musical drama that defies classification, but does combine elements of a requiem, a road movie and a fairground ride.
At its heart is a rocky filial reunion between Jack, who lives in a squalid caravan on the banks of the Mersey, and his son Billy, who lives mainly in his imagination. For most of the play they talk at cross purposes: Jack recalls his career working up from the coconut shy and shoot-the-duck concession to become king of the waltzers; while Billy, who has been obsessed since childhood with westerns and down-home Americana, entertains fantasies of the hobo life on Route 66, although the M66 is closer to home.
It all becomes truly strange when they break into song. Billy has a fine opening number in homage to Leadbelly's Goodnight Irene, and later persuades his dad to reprise his sinister childhood song the Lightning Rod Man - a bizarre lullaby that used to keep Billy awake all night.
Brian Walsh's Jack is a splendid old reprobate: a fairground hustler who lost his bark, and whose wrestler's physique has degenerated into a sack of tumours. Paul Duckworth's rangy Billy looks like a man who set out to become Elvis but ended up as Shakin' Stevens. His stonewashed denims and fluorescent socks reveal a life of sartorial and spiritual confusion.
Graeme Phillips's well-conceived production gains a further lift from composer Patrick Dineen's outstanding score: a plaintive blend of techno-bluegrass that weaves around the action like tumbleweed. Following its outstanding success with Angels in America, the Unity is on a roll as the most ambitious theatre in Liverpool, with a stimulating production style matching poetry to electronics. The closing image of Jack, launched along the Mersey in a flashing waltzer-cab, like a viking warlord aboard his flaming long ship, will burn long in the memory.
I hope for his sake there are dodgems in Valhalla.
· Until tomorrow. Box office: 0151-709 4988.
