"I tell you, it was like Christmas."

Teddy: Six years ago, I married Ruth and we left for America. I’ve found success and come back to London to see my dad. My uncle. My two brothers. I was the favorite. This was my home. Why did I have to leave?

Max: My son Teddy left six years ago. Now he’s back, with a woman we’ve never seen before. He left me with a crippled family. This was his home. Why did he have to leave? And why’d he come back?

Ruth: Six years ago, Teddy and I married quickly and left for America. Now I’m meeting his family at last. England was our home. Why did we have to leave?

The Flatwater Shakespeare Company and the Haymarket Theatre proudly present Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming at the Haymarket Theatre, 803 Q Street in Lincoln, beginning Thursday, April 15, at 7:30 p.m. Performances continue Friday - Sunday, April 16-18; and Thursdays - Sundays, April 22-25 and April 29-30 and May 1-2. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays - Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Call 477-2600 for tickets.

The Homecoming has been described as “perhaps the most cruel play ever written and certainly one of the funniest.” It’s a devastating look at the ties that bind families together. It explores the fine line between love and hate – and wonders if such a line exists at all.

The setting is a working-class neighborhood in North London in the 1960s. Max, a retired butcher, lives in an old house there with his brother, Sam, and his two younger sons, Lenny and Joey. One night, Max’s oldest son, Teddy, returns for a visit with his wife, Ruth. As the play unfolds, the tensions, power struggles, nostalgia, and resentments continue to build.

Harold Pinter, the playwright, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. The Swedish Academy, in its citation, observed that in his plays Pinter “uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle.” He has been praised for his powerful combinations of fear and humor, suppressed information and enveloping atmosphere, surreal developments and exacting language and ominous silences.

Director Bob Hall -- Nebraska's 2010 Artist of the Year -- is also featured as the family patriarch, Max. Rob Burt is the modern-day prodigal, Teddy, and Melissa Lewis Nuss is Ruth. Scott Glen appears as Sam, while Nathan Weiss and Jeff Tinnean play Lenny and Joey.

Flatwater Shakespeare is in its sixth year as a professional not-for-profit theatre company, bringing to Lincoln audiences the richness of dramatic works as they were meant to be experienced: visit www.flatwatershakespeare.org. The Haymarket Theatre continues its mission of presenting vibrant and thought-provoking drama: visit www.haymarkettheatre.org.

The Homecoming
Dates: April 15-18, 22-25, 29-30 and May 1-2
Time: 7:30 p.m.; 2 p.m. on Sundays
Place: The Haymarket Theatre, 803 Q Street in Lincoln
Tickets: (402) 477-2600
$18 Adults; $15 Seniors; $10 Students

Nebraska's Artist of the Year!

The Nebraska Arts Council has announced the recipients
of the 2010 Governor’s Arts Awards and Flatwater's Artistic Director

Bob Hall

has been named Artist of the Year.

This honor is awarded to an individual artist practicing in any discipline whose work or career has made a significant contribution to her or his art form and to the state of Nebraska.

From the NAC citation: Bob Hall is a multifaceted artist with a professional career in both theatre and visual arts. Since earning his degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Bob Hall has crafted an impressive and influential body of work as a director, designer, administrator, and visual artist. Bob is the Artistic Director of the Haymarket Theatre in Lincoln and Artistic Director of The Flatwater Shakespeare Company. He is also a professional artist and writer, who has contributed work for Marvel, Valiant and DC Comics’ graphic novels. He has drawn Spiderman, Batman, Thor, and Captain America among many others, and has also drawn original characters and written stories to accompany them. Pages from his Armed and Dangerous, a gritty, noir-style crime comic, along with Joker-centric Batman stories, have been presented in recent gallery shows at the Project Room in Lincoln, and at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. As a visual artist he has also exhibited his figurative drawings. He teaches a course in graphic novel creation at Hastings College. As a teacher, he inspires actors and visual artists to enrich their craft, inspires audiences to deepen their love of theater, and inspires readers and viewers to see the world more imaginatively. With the Flatwater Shakespeare Company, based in Lincoln, he has brought Shakespeare’s own theatrical practices vividly into the 21st Century. He applies the principles of Shakespearean stagecraft to present-day circumstances. As a theatrical director, visual artist, and writer he demonstrates the ability not only to communicate, but to fully immerse his audience in the artistic experience through a variety of media.

All of the 2010 awards will be presented by Governor Dave Heineman at a noon luncheon on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln. Recipients of other awards include Jennifer Boomgaarden of the Omaha Symphony, Barbara Zach of the Lincoln Symphony, John Mangen of the Omaha Nation School in Macy, actor-producer John Beasley, and musician / music-sponsor Keith Heckman, among others.

For ticket information, visit the Nebraska Arts Council webpage for the event:

www.nebraskaartscouncil.org/Programs/?page=governorsAwards