Betrayal
by Harold Pinter
Tuesday 28th April - Saturday 2nd May
Tuesday 5th May - Saturday 9th May 2009
Performances start 19:45
According to Pinter’s authorised biographer, Michael Billington, Pinter wrote Betrayal while married to Vivien Merchant and being‘otherwise engaged’ with Lady Antonia Fraser, who was to become
his second wife. The play, however, was inspired by his earlier affair
with BBC TV presenter Joan Bakewell, which took place from 1962
to 1969.
Betrayal exposes the complex nature of an affair, occurring over a
nine year period involving Emma (Alison Stuart), her husband
Robert (Jeff Gardener), a book publisher and Robert’s close friend
Jerry (Chris Yeldham), a literary agent who is also married.
The play is structured in reverse chronology, with the first scene
taking place after the affair has ended. Each subsequent scene
discloses a key element in the course of the affair and the play
concludes with the first erotically charged encounter between Emma
and Jerry, nine years earlier.
A programme would be helpful in following the sequence of events.
As the play progresses backwards, it reveals that love itself can
sometimes be the betrayer not only of others, but of ourselves.
Pinter’s references to the poems of W.B. Yeats are significant in this
respect.
Pinter always infuses his work with wry humour, which sneaks in
through the dialogue in a manner unique to him. The waiter (Clive
Greig) is a more overt manifestation of this.
Since the subject matter is timeless, the action for this production is
set in the present.
Betrayal is a Pinter classic not to be missed, performed by a cast of
accomplished Archway actors. Early booking is advised.
