Betrayal (Pinter plays) [Paperback]

One of the best plays I've read, if not the best. I've spent three months directing this play, and I wouldn't have invested that time if it hadn't meant a lot to me.

Let me add that I could not have asked for a better run. We blew away at least some of the audience every night -- had the whole audience leaning forward on the edge of their seats (never seen that before in a theatre!), had people crying, had people talking about it for hours afterwards. So, if you're looking for a good play to produce or direct...

Some background info to start. It's nine scenes. It's about 90 minutes running time, depending on how you work the deafening pauses. It has three characters plus one (there's an unnamed waiter that appears in one of the scenes). It can be performed on a minimalist set. It largely plays backwards in time, like Memento or Irreversible.

It's an examination of a seven-year affair between two married people. It explores all the emotions you go through in the situation, and all the different types of betrayal. It's considered the classic study of the situation and Pinter's most accessible work, and it's probably his most personal. It's based on Pinter's real life affair with Joan Bakewell, "the thinking man's crumpet". Pinter wrote no full-length play after it till 1994. It was first produced in 1978, made into a (fairly boring) movie with Jeremy Irons in 1983, for which Pinter wrote the screenplay and an extra scene 8.5. I think the most famous production was in New York in 2000, starring Juliette Binoche. And the play has a Seinfeld episode based on it (the one where Elaine's friend gets married in India).

Why am I so wowed by it? Where to start... Let me break it into three things.

Firstly, the structure is compelling. And Betrayal may have been the original -- I can't think of an earlier instance of the backwards-in-time narrative. Backwards-in-time means the audience usually knows more than the characters, is driven by "how" rather than "what", and you get a lot of unusual dramatic effects. Characters misremember things, details are filled out or references explained. And the events of the past progressively become more significant: all the inevitability of the future is written on them. Consider the final moment of the play, the moment when the affair begins -- the two characters simply look at each other, and they just know. As an audience, you feel hopeful, but at the same time you're aware of all the horrible stuff they're going to go through over the next nine years, so it's a beautiful moment, but also incredibly sad.

Secondly the language, line-by-line, is amazing. There is no other English play that says so little and implies so much. And, if you read the biographies, you'll find that Pinter took enormous care over this -- every pause is significant. It requires brilliant acting -- characters *never* say what they mean, what they're feeling or thinking. On the surface, they might be making small talk or joking around, but beneath the words they're angry, frustrated, vengeful...

Lastly, the issues the play deals with are close to every audience's home. I mean, the subject matter is all the doubts, worries, insecurities, jealousies, and ecstasies of relationships -- everyone will find something in here that they relate to, that's painful or touching because it's so true. The play takes the most personal, meaningful issues, and it handles them with sensitivity, in all their complexity.

Harold Pinter's website is http://www.haroldpinter.org/

One of Harold Pinter's most ambitious undertakings, his 1978 play BETRAYAL ranks among his finest works. Often called a sly comedy of sexual manners, BETRAYAL encompasses much more than just adultery.

BETRAYAL has only three main characters (plus a waiter in a single scene). There is Jerry and Emma, who years before had an affair, and Emma's husband Robert, who happens to be Jerry's best friend and business partner. Pinter ingeniously has the play occur in reverse chronological order, so that it begins with a meeting between Jerry and Emma in 1977, years after their affair, and it ends with a shocking scene from 1968. The ending gives BETRAYAL a great deal of reread value, as one can go back through the play and apply the secret revealed in its final moments.

While adultery is the most evident theme of the play, it is about other forms of betrayal: how we betray our friends, betray our spouses by permitting them to break the bonds of marriage, and how our words and actions betray the secrets we strive to hide. Pinter's usual theme of the unknowability of our lifelong partners is even more strongly shown here than in other plays.

BETRAYAL is an excellent play for anyone who likes the work of Harold Pinter. Even if you became interested in the playwright's work through his late political plays like "The New World Order" and "Party Time", this more "traditional" work will excite.

This play by Harold Pinter is about a three characters who are all cheating on each other. The most interesting aspect of this play is Pinter's technique of telling the story backwards. The audience comes in at the end of the affair. From that point the story basically proceeds back through time. The only problem I have with this play is that I don't like any of the characters. Jerry and Emma seem sleazy, and Robert is just a jerk. It makes it difficult to feel anything for the characters. This definitely does not ruin the play however. If you notice this playing at your local theatre, find time to go; you will have a great time.