Homecoming

Homecoming is part of the multi-award winning short film trilogy Time and Tide. 

Samuel West plays an actor returning to the theatre, as he tells the story of Odysseus, who found that even after the Trojan war and an epic journey home across the sea, his trials were far from over. After the theatre lay dormant during coronavirus restrictions, the actor walks through the working areas backstage, using Odysseus’ journey to express the frustration at the deserted theatre and the struggles faced in life as we try to start again after a crisis. As he remembers the audience that once filled the empty seats, an epic reveal across the auditorium coincides with a change in perspective that gives him hope for the future.

The film is also about the central character’s homecoming to his world as an actor and the theatres that have all lain dormant for so long during 2020 and 2021. It shows the change in perception that has occurred through this time of crisis, and the process by which we find the motivation to start again.

Samuel West was ideal casting as besides his extensive experience in stage and screen, he recently set up the poetry-reading initiative – Pandemic Poems – just ahead of the official UK Coronavirus lock-down in 2020. The initiative seeks to give a time for reflection and hope in times of uncertainty. 

Samuel stated: “The Playhouse, the palace of fantasy, is paradoxically often the best place for us to hear the truth nowadays. During the pandemic, every empty theatre seems to say to me ‘Here’s what you could have won.’ At a time when my addiction to the live had no fix through plays, gigs or football, it was so good to get onto the stage of the Theatre Royal, Brighton (which I know and love well) for a very personal Homecoming. I’m very grateful to Moving Pictures Theatre for the chance.”

The Time and Tide was written by Lucy Nordberg to explore our experience of time, as we live our individual lives while subject to the wider influence of society and history.  

Homecoming also forms part of the From Home project, set up by Moving Pictures Theatre and Language Umbrella Media for Brighton Digital Festival, with the support of Sussex University Humanities Lab. Homecoming is part of core content for the project, exploring the wider meaning of home. Material for other aspects of the project include videos already collected in lockdown from all over the world – from professional short films through to thoughts spoken to camera phone – and presented in an immersive VR environment. Read more about From Home here.

Behind the Scenes

As Moving Pictures Theatre is based in Brighton, the company had long had an aim to film in the city’s atmospheric Theatre Royal venue. One of the oldest theatres in the country, the venue opened in 1806. Homecoming offered the obvious opportunity to use not only the stage, but also the areas behind the scenes and under the stage that are less often seen by the audience.

Filmed entirely during lockdown, the production faced challenges but also offered an opportunity to reopen the stage for performance. The theatre’s general manager, John Baldock, and technical manager, Tom Hitchins, were present during filming. Two of the film’s production assistants, Isabella McCarthy Sommerville and Rosana Arbini, both work at the Theatre Royal – as well as being actors – and were pleased to have this opportunity to return to the stage during its closure, albeit in a different role. The theatre team’s knowledge of the venue helped the film crew get the most out of this atmospheric space.