Gemma Chan: The Homecoming is 'very full on'

Chan stars as Ruth, the wife of Teddy whose past and motives are unclear

Humans star Gemma Chan is the sole actress in a 50th anniversary production of Harold Pinter's Homecoming, a darkly ambiguous look at issues including masculinity, abuse and repression surrounding the return of one of three brothers to his father's London home.

The play co-stars John Simm, Keith Allen, Ron Cook, Gary Kemp and John Macmillan.

Chan plays Ruth, the wife of Teddy, the eldest and most successful of three sons who has returned to London from the US where he is greeted by his physically and mentally abusive father and his brothers and uncle.

Gemma - this play is quite an intense experience for the audience and, we suspect, the cast?

Yes it's full on, it doesn't let up at all - you can't drop your concentration for a second. It's a wonderful play because there's no fat on there. In every moment there is something going on, the power is shifting or the dynamics of the scene. I've not watched it from the outside but when you're in it, it's very full on.

It's been 50 years since it was written, does it still resonate?

It's wonderful writing and Pinter, in a way, these characters he created - particularly the male characters and their attitudes and the way they behave - it's still quite shocking. I can't imagine how shocking it would have been in 1965 but I think he created characters that are still incredibly interesting.

The traits that you see in certain characters you can still see in society today. I still think the play's got something to say and I love my character - she's been fascinating to explore and try and understand where she's coming from. A lot of people think she's controversial and ask why she behaves the way she behaves, and it's been really interesting trying to work that out.

There's a great deal of ambiguity in the role of Ruth.

There is a lot of ambiguity with the character and in [Pinter's] text, but as you work on it you have to make choices and decide what your truth is. It was interesting to work with [director] Jamie [Lloyd] and the other actors to say: "What is the truth with these characters, what's happened between Teddy and Ruth and their marriage?"

The play runs at the Trafalgar Studios until 13 February

And could that change after you start doing more performances?

It could well change. We've got three months to go and I have my own ideas of what she might do next and I'm looking forward to getting to grips with that.

What about getting to grips with the text? With Pinter everyone says it's as much about the pauses as the lines of dialogue.

I've loved it. I love a pause and a silence so I will happily milk those. But Jamie said to us when we were rehearsing: "You've got to explore why the pause might be there, they're not just there by coincidence."

He's put them there for a reason - sometimes it might just be because he thinks there will be a laugh, other times there's something going on between the characters and you have to allow that to be alive on stage. It's been really technical but once you have examined it forensically, you can then just enjoy what he's written.

You're the only actress in the cast - most of the actors are a lot older than you, have they shared their experiences?

I'm the same age as John Macmillan (who plays amateur boxer Joey) but I can't compete with their anecdotes during rehearsal, they have a few between them. They have been wonderful - there are quite a few personalities in there but I can honestly say that we didn't fall out once, which was great. All the drama was in the scenes, there's been a lot of laughter.

Chan played the robotic home help Anita in Humans

Your career is very much taking flight right now with the success of things like Humans on Channel 4, what's next?

I don't know, I haven't really got a master plan. After this, I have to do Humans series two and that's five months of next year. Then I'm open to to anything interesting that comes up.

Humans was a big success, tapping into our fears in our tech-obsessed age, was that something you recognised?

Absolutely, I have a love/hate relationship with technology. It's frightening how much we rely on it but how little we understand it and when it breaks, we're screwed because we don't know how to fix it.

I hate that but at the same time, I couldn't live with without it. I think the show's resonated with people because of their dependence on and wariness of rapidly advancing technology.

Have you seen the scripts for series two? Do you know where its going?

I haven't, I've heard some rumours but they are keeping me in the dark too.

Where would you like to see it heading?

I'd love to see it expand and to see what's going on in other parts of the world. I'd love the characters to be moving on and exploring, particularly my character. I've heard that the scripts are very good though.

The Homecoming runs at the Trafalgar Studios until 13 February.