Betrayal at The Harold Pinter Theatre

A Pinter play is always a treat and none more so than his 1978 offering, Betrayal.  Based on his seven-year clandestine affair in the sixties with the married broadcaster Joan Bakewell (now best known for hosting Portrait and Landscape Artist of The Year), this three- handed exploration into the effects of infidelity within a marriage has never been handled better. This is the last in Jamie Lloyd’s season of Pinter plays all shown at The Harold Pinter Theatre and the best has been saved for last.

Lloyd has assembled a stellar cast; Tom Hiddleston as publisher Robert, Zawe Ashton as his wife, Emma and Charlie Cox her literary agent lover, Jerry.  They all shine, but it is Tom Hiddleston who radiates the most wattage.

The set-up of this love triangle is fiendishly clever in that the play opens after the affair is over and finishes, seven years earlier at the beginning, when Jerry, Robert’s great friend, who is also married, makes a drunken pass at Emma during a party.

As with all Pinter’s plays, Betrayal is as much about what the characters don’t say and it takes great performances to be able to convey so much with just a look.  Visibly haunted throughout, Hiddleston delivers a master class in illuminating the pain one feels on realising that a loved one loves another. This is especially vivid during the scene in Italy when Robert discovers Emily has received a private letter from Jerry.  The lights pick up the tears trickling down his (I have to say rather lovely) face, whilst every part of his body is statue like in its stillness.  I for one felt devastated for him. Not that Robert is without his faults; but then who is?  In fact none of the characters come away with their personalities intact. 

The structure of the play strips away the artifice, as we know immediately what’s been going on between Emma and Jerry.  Robert, too, has been aware of the affair for four years, although hasn’t let onto his friend that this is the case.  Oh the games people play. Talking of games, Squash is often mentioned and the dialogue between the two men often resembles a game of this particularly hard-hitting sport. 

There is no set to speak of and this is all to the good.  Everything is concentrated on what everyone says or doesn’t say.  Also, although most of the action takes place between just two of the cast, here the third member is always on stage, loitering in the background and thus highlighting that in a love triangle the third party is never far from the other two’s conscience.

Right from the start we learn that time has moved on from when Jerry and Emma used to meet on whatever afternoon they could, in a flat they shared for the sole purpose of consummating their love (or lust) for one another.  Emma is now conducting another affair with a married author called Casey.  He has connections with the trio, as Jerry is his agent and Robert his publisher.  It’s in this first scene that she informs Jerry that Robert has betrayed her with other women for years and that she has revealed their affair to him.  It’s not rocket science why Pinter entitled the play Betrayal.  Emma betrays both Robert and Jerry with Casey, Robert admits his extra-curricular activities, and Jerry has betrayed not only his wife, but his best man. 

Under the expert direction of Jamie Lloyd these three excellent performances serve Pinter’s fine play very well indeed.  Stylish and modern, it highlights the pain any form of betrayal produces, but without compromising on the generous amount of humour contained within the script.  After all Pinter has always been capable of peppering his often painful offerings with more than a hefty dollop of laughs.

Beg or borrow a ticket.  Whatever the price tag, it will be worth it.