Harold Pinter’s tight story about friendship, infidelity and trust is directed and cast brilliantly.
Betrayal: The Story
Betrayal is a tight production with a minimal cast. The majority of the story plays out between Robert, his wife Emma, and Jerry, Robert’s best friend and Emma’s lover. The story is actually shown in reverse chronological order. It begins at the end of Jerry and Emma’s affair. They had grown apart over the seven years they’ve been together.
Emma tells Jerry that she finally told her husband the night before. He becomes super apologetic in an effort to maintain his friendship with Robert. He goes to confess, expecting Robert to react with fire and anger. Robert doesn’t. Instead, he reveals that he already knew. Emma told him years before.
The story then reverses course. It returns to happier times between the friends and the lovers, eventually going all the way back to the start of the affair. Along the way, they share happy memories, some laughs, plenty of secrecy, and the pain of broken trust.
Betrayal: The Cast
The small cast is limited neither in fame nor talent in director Jamie Lloyd’s production. The Broadway cast carries over from their run in London. The top billed star is Tom Hiddleston (Loki from the Marvel movies). Jerry is played by Charlie Cox (Daredevil in the Marvel TV series on Netflix). Zawe Ashton plays Emma. Ashton is known for her work on Velvet Buzzsaw, Blitz and Nocturnal Animals.
Cox and Ashton open the play, right at the end of their affair. He seems only to care about upholding his friendship with Robert and his own marriage. Emma and Robert are finished. He rushes to meet with Robert who reveals he’s known for years about their affair. Hiddleston isn’t just nonchalant about the affair, he injects the first of many moments of comedy. Hiddleston gets the majority of laughs in the play. The others are all at the expense of Jerry’s ignorance or short-sightedness.
Ashton is brilliant as she navigates Emma’s conflicting desires. She wants to be worshipped. She wants the safety of her marriage but also the excitement of her affair. Ashton’s physical flexibility mimics Emma’s emotional gymnastics. She deftly moves between devotion and infatuation.
Betrayal: The Production
The production from Jamie Lloyd’s company is unique. Not only are the lighting and costumes minimal (there are no costume changes), but the stage itself becomes part of the show. Even when the scene includes only two of the primary three members, the third is never allowed to leave the stage. Often, audiences are forced to shift between the focal point of the main characters and the subtle emotional shifts of the third.
The stage rotates, moving the actors to strategic locations for each scene. One subtle nod is that the stage actually includes two rings that rotate. Early on, they move together. Later, as the relationships fracture and the characters grow apart, the rings move in opposing directions.
Conclusion
Betrayal is a tale of broken trust, loss of friendship, and the complexity of relationships. Add in the amazing production and the stellar cast, and viewers are treated to an incredibly tense story acted out by some of the most talented people on the planet. Betrayal runs 90 minutes with no intermission. This production is available through December 8th at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.