Betrayal
Harold Pinter is back. After a few years in which he has been more famous for antiwar activism than for his plays, the enfant terrible of the 1960s is now the Nobel laureate for literature and is seeing a massive revival of his work. Despite not writing a full length play since 1978 Pinter has received the greatest possible honour for a living writer. Betrayal is the most recent of his major works, a play rooted in reality which deals with infidelity and vanished love. It was written after Pinter’s affair with the broadcaster Joan Bakewell.
Betrayal is the story of Robertand his best friend Jerry, now the lover of Robert’s wife Emma. She soon becomes a pawn in the battle of wills between her lovers. This production will see five different actresses playing the role of Emma as her individuality is denied. For Robert and Jerry she matters as a possession, as their mutual betrayal poisons them against each other, and the world.
According to Director Jeff James, “Many productions have directed Emma as the central character. But the betrayal is not simply by Emma of Robert. In this production the more significant betrayal will be that of Jerry and Robert by the other. I see Emma almost as a device that they use to play out their own power game. It may be that she is enigmatic, not because she’s really cool, but rather because she isn’t really thinking or wanting at all. The play is about Jerry and Robert, about their love and hate for each other, and about the almost homoerotic violence that hovers between them.”
In Betrayal the love affair plays backwards. We know it will end unhappily and watch as the characters deny the obvious to themselves and to each other. Beneath their conversation lies a dark subtext that is always threatening to break the surface and shatter their complacency.
