'Betrayal': Sparse spin on Pinter's classic

‘BETRAYAL’: (left to right) Charlie Cox, Tom Hiddleston & Zawe Ashton. Photo: Marc Brenner

BETRAYAL
Written by Harold Pinter
Directed by Jamie Lloyd
Through December 8, 2019
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
242 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200),BetrayalOnBroadway.com

By David NouNou

I always found Betrayal to be Harold Pinter’s most accessible play. It has a lyrical flow and showcases a love triangle in the most mature manner without chronicling all the baggage that bogs down a ménage a trois. However, under Jamie Lloyd’s ultra-minimalistic staging, it has been stripped of any form or flow. It looks more like a first day rehearsal than a full performance. In this case minimalism is another way of saying pretentious.

Since the play spans a nine-year period and moves backward in time, when it originally opened in 1980, it had a specific time and was set in many places. The time now is irrelevant; it can be 1980 or 2019. However, there are many specific settings and on a threadbare stage, it is very difficult to decipher where you are in that moment. Since Mr. Pinter is a man of words and every word and sentence has to be listened to and digested, the audience has to now formulate where they are at any given time/year, thus robbing the play of the full attention it deserves.

As the curtain rises, Jerry (Charlie Cox) is having drinks “somewhere” with Emma (Zawe Ashton). It’s been two years since they have last seen each other and they are discussing their seven-year relationship. Jerry is a literary agent for writers, Emma runs an art gallery and is married to Robert (Tom Hiddleston), a book publisher. Robert and Jerry have been best friends since college, and Jerry was best man at Robert and Emma’s wedding. However, at this particular moment, various betrayals are being revealed. Emma is currently having an affair with Casey, an author, whose agent is Jerry and his publisher is Robert. Robert has been cheating on Emma for many years, and they are at the juncture of a divorce. Emma tells Robert about her seven-year relationship with Jerry. Betrayal runs through marriages, friendship and extra-curricular affairs, but all in a civilized manner without any mire to bring it down.

The next scene follows the previous one and is between Robert and Jerry. I’ve seen the play three times before, (so I know where it is being held) “in Robert’s apartment.” Robert and Jerry are casually conversing and it comes up that Robert didn’t find out about the affair the previous night but in actuality four years earlier in Venice. Betrayals in affairs and friendship keep mounting

The scenes keep moving backwards in time; the next is two years earlier at the flat where Jerry and Emma used to meet in the afternoons for their rendezvous but now are breaking up and giving it up. Moving back four years earlier to where Emma and Robert are in Venice where Robert first learned of Emma’s affair with Jerry. Time keeps going backwards to the time when a drunken Jerry surprises Emma in her bedroom and professes his love for her while a party is going on downstairs in her and Robert’s home.

A lot of movies and shows have since used this format of moving back in time. Betrayal was an original with its technique of reverse chronology. Affairs in general but especially extra-marital affairs have always been messy; how refreshing it was to see something handled so delicately and eloquently. Under this regime of “ultra-minimalism,” subtlety and nuances are being sacrificed under the guise of visionary directors. This means doing it on the cheap, especially for a play of this nature where time and places play such an important factor.

This is another movie-star vehicle and Tom Hiddleston making his Broadway debut as the cuckolded husband, Robert, is brilliant. His stage presence is palpable. His Robert is strong, venerable and multi-faceted. Even when he is off to one side of the stage and he is not in the scene, his presence and stature is felt. Mr. Hiddleston’s is probably the best Robert to date.

Charlie Cox as Jerry is effective but not commanding. Zawe Ashston as Emma seems more like she is modeling instead of acting in a Pinter play. Her staccato delivery of lines, which is good for a Pinter play, is overshadowed by her striking poses, and at times it appears she’s more into the poses than performing. Also, can anyone tell me why Emma is barefoot in every scene spanning over nine years? Couldn’t she afford a pair of shoes for one of those scenes? I guess this is yet another one of director’s minimalistic choices.

Like Sea Wall/A Life, another Hollywood star vehicle (which opened back in August), the latest Betrayal revival is another example of ultra-minimalism. This is the price we have to pay for seeing Tom Hiddleston or Jake Gyllenhaal. It seems minimalism must be the new theatrical experience for the rest of this season.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published September 9, 2019
Reviewed at September 8, 2019 press performance.