Betrayal (play)
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Betrayal is a play written by Harold Pinter in 1978. The play deals with an affair that entangles a married couple, Emma and Robert, and their close friend Jerry (who is also married). The play is innovative in its particular uses of reverse chronology; the first scene in the play takes place after the lovers' affair has been dissolved. But several of the scenes advance the action by moving forward in time as well.
It was first produced by the National Theatre in London on November 15, 1978. The original cast featured Penelope Wilton as Emma, Michael Gambon as Jerry, Daniel Massey as Robert, and Artro Morris as the waiter. It was designed by John Bury and directed by Peter Hall. Later, it opened on Broadway on January 5, 1980 with Raul Julia as Jerry, Blythe Danner as Emma, and Roy Scheider as Robert.
Betrayal is regarded as one of Pinter's major plays and is produced quite often all over the world.
Due to a program note about the author accompanying productions of the play, stating that he "has lived [with] Antonia Fraser" for "five years", the biographical context for the play has been attributed erroneously to Pinter's affair with Lady Antonia Fraser, which occurred from 1975 to 1980, while he was still married to Vivien Merchant. (Pinter married Antonia Fraser in 1980, after the Frasers' divorce (1977) and the Pinters' divorce (1980) became final.) In actuality, Pinter explained to his official biographer, Michael Billington, the play is based on an affair he had in 1962-69 with television presenter Joan Bakewell, who was married to producer and director Michael Bakewell at that time.
A film version of the play was releassed in 1983 starring Jeremy Irons, Patricia Hodge and Ben Kingsley.
2000 saw an off-Broadway production at the Roundabout Theatre with Juliette Binoche, Liev Schreiber, and John Slattery. It was given a major Australian production for Sydney Theatre Company in 1999 with Paul Goddard, Angie Milliken and Robert Menzies, directed by David Berthold.
The eighth episode of the ninth season of the television situation comedy Seinfeld is a homage to this play. The episode, entitled "The Betrayal", moves backward in time, featuring a plot structure of reverse chronology, and it includes a character named (Peter) Pinter.
The 2000 motion picture Memento also uses reverse chronology featuring multiple flashbacks. This point is discussed by the director, Christopher Nolan, in the supplementary materials available on the DVD.
[edit] External links
| The Plays of Harold Pinter |
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| Plays : Ashes to Ashes, The Basement, Betrayal, The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, Celebration, The Collection, The Dumb Waiter, The Dwarfs, Family Voices, The Homecoming, The Hothouse, A Kind of Alaska, Landscape, The Lover, Moonlight, Monologue, Mountain Language, A Night Out, Night School, No Man's Land, Old Times, One for the Road, Party Time, Remembrance of Things Past (with Di Trevis), The Room, Silence, A Slight Ache, Tea Party, Victoria Station, Voices (with James Clarke) Sketches : Apart from That, Applicant, The Black and White, Dialogue for Three, Interview, Last to Go, The New World Order, Night, Precisely, Press Conference, Request Stop, Special Offer, That's All, That's Your Trouble, Trouble in the Works |
