THE story goes that Steven Spielberg once said Pete Postlethwaite was the best actor in the world, and in this staging of The Homecoming has brought a truly world-class production to the region.

The play centres around a very male household of father, uncle and three sons who take it upon themselves to employ the wife of one of the sons, and the only female cast member, as a prostitute.

Postlethwaite plays the father, Max, with an incredible presence in one of Harold Pinter's most disturbing and shocking plays.

There is a brutal connection between the male characters that sees the eldest son Teddy, give up his wife to his brothers Lenny and Joey. Lenny, played by Paul Hilton, is the cold, brutal middle brother who supplies his younger brother with women, and despises his elder brother, ultimately stealing his wife Ruth for the use of the whole household.

This is no simple, rose-tinted view of family life in the 1960s but a frightening examination of the desires and longings lurking within people where loveless sex is the mark of a man.

The supporting cast is led by Eamon Boland, who brings a fragility to Sam racked by years of guilt, whilst Ruth is played with a cold detachment by Simone Lahbib, star of ITV's Bad Girls.

But it's the range and depth that Postlethwaite brings that ensnares the audience, taking them through a disturbing range of emotions.

As violent patriarch ready to beat his son and brother, know-it-all gambler who could have been a leading horse trainer and finally a weasel-like man keen to have his share of Ruth, Postlethwaite left an extraordinary impression.

The Homecoming is sure to go down as one of the best productions ever in the North West.

Review: THE HOMECOMING Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. On until March 3.