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Betrayal

  • opened: 10/8/2003
  • closed: 1/31/2004
  • Duchess Theatre
  • Box Office: 020 7494 5076
  • Details:
  • Summary: Visit the ARCHIVE to hear a theatreVOICE discussion. Harold Pinter's play of adultery and deception, premiered by Peter Hall at the National in 1978 and now brought by him into West End for the first time, has a famous anticlockwise scheme. Janie Dee plays Emma who gets involved in a seven-year affair with literary agent Jerry (Aden Gillett) the best friend of her publisher husband Robert (Hugo Speer). Hall has shifted the start-date to 2003, which has left some critics perplexed, while others have pondered the play's lasting merit; the majority, however, have praised both Pinter's play and Hall's revival as fresh and lethally assured. Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard was unsure about the play: 'Pinter has written eloquently about men who have sexual relations with the same woman. But in Betrayal the relationship between Robert and Jerry, friends from their university days, never assumes any emotional weight or depth.' Michael Billington in the Guardian confessed: 'Having dismissed Pinter's play at its 1978 premiere, I have spent the last quarter-century catching up with it. Each time I see it I discover something new in this story of multiple betrayal which reverses conventional chronology.' John Gross in the Sunday Telegraph also remains one of the play's staunch admirers: 'There isn't a pause in sight – not an unnatural one, at least.' He added: 'This clarity is matched by Peter Hall's admirable production.' Mark Shenton in the Sunday Express argued: 'The play still packs a bruising emotional punch and Dee combines poise and feeling as she shuttles between her two men.' Ian Johns in the Times also singled out Dee for praise: 'The play's emotional heart beats most strongly with Janie Dee's Emma, moving from robust warmth, bruised hurt and numbed doubt as Pinter's time shifts demand. It is a beautifully judged performance.' Michael Coveney in the Daily Mail applauded: 'Peter Hall's fine production, crackling with a dangerous electricity... the subtleties and tensions abound, even surviving a technically maladroit performance by Hugo Speer as Robert.' Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph wrote: 'This is a drama in which every word earns its place in the script. The dialogue is spare but immensely rich, and the narrative technique offers levels of irony, and a sense of implacable fate, that reveal a dramatist at the very height of his imaginative and organisational powers.' He added: 'Hall's fluent, fluid production marvellously marries the play's heart and its head, greatly helped by John Gunter's dream-like set, which evokes a jumble of the characters' memories and the unseen children of the play's unhappy marriages.'
  • Author: Harold Pinter
  • Director: Peter Hall
  • Composer: n/a
  • Lyricist: n/aSet Designer: John Gunter
  • Lighting Designer: Peter Mumford
  • Costume Designer: n/a
  • Choreographer: n/a
  • Cast Details: Janie Dee (Emma); Aden Gillett (Jerry); Hugo Speer (Robert); James Supervia (Waiter). Transferred from Theatre Royal Bath (opened: 09/07/2003).
  • Reference: More Info