Review: Betrayal
Image: Guy Edmonds and Matt Zeroes
PHOTO: Clare Hawley
It is not surprising that Harold Pinter’s play Betrayal received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play (1979): it is as perfect a piece of theatre as you are likely to see on stage, and the Ensemble production certainly does it justice.
The work is a reverse chronological examination of an affair (from 1977 to 1968), with the pattern interrupted in three of the nine scenes.
The liaison is complicated by the fact that both lovers are married and the male adulterer is the best friend of his lover’s husband. Got it?
The opening scene between the former lovers establishes that their affair is over and they are both still with their spouses. The final scene depicts the moment when the affair began and the betrayal was initiated. In between, we discover that the lovers continued their affair for years, oddly enough setting up a household that we assume mirrors their domestic life at home.
The writing is typical Pinter: tight, spare, witty. At one point, Emma (Ursula Mills) asks her lover Jerry (Matthew Zeremes) “Have you ever been unfaithful?”, to which he replies, “To who?”
The surprise answer is “To me, of course”.
Pinter captures the sangfroid of his well-educated, middle-class English characters while having a dig at the literary establishment. Emma’s husband Robert (Guy Edmonds) is a publisher, his former best man and best friend Jerry is a literary agent, and Emma is a voracious reader.
Director Mark Kilmurry keeps up the pace in this 90-minute performance to satisfying effect. (ID)
Until Aug 20, varied performance times. Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougall St, Kirribilli. $66-$73. Tickets & info: ensemble.com.au
