Reviewed by
James Karas
A production of a play by Harold Pinter may be
the last thing you would expect to see in Shanghai but that is precisely what I
found in China’s largest city. Better still, director Philip Knight is a good
ol’ Canadian boy from Stratford, Ontario and a graduate from the George Brown College Theatre School to boot.
Betrayal is Pinter’s partly autobiographical play and
it is an interesting rumination on the subject of its title. It opens with the
end of an adulterous relationship and moves chronologically backwards to the
night of the seduction and the beginning of the treachery.
Jerry (Arran Hawkins) and Robert (John
Prakapas) are best friends and business associates. Jerry is an authors’ agent
and Robert is a publisher. They are such close friends that Jerry was Best Man
at Robert’s wedding to Emma (Natasha Portwood). Soon after the wedding, Jerry
and Emma begin a complicated adulterous relationship presumably without
arousing any suspicion in Robert.
The plot unfolds in understated scenes where
civility is largely maintained as grotesque treachery is committed and the
façade of proper behavior is maintained.
Hawkins gives a fine performance as the betrayer.
In the opening scene he learns that his friend has known about the adulterous
relationship for years but has said nothing. He appears nervous and shocked but
he betrays relatively little emotional turmoil. Hawkins bears some resemblance
to the young Pinter and gives a sustained performance as a treacherous friend
and a loving adulterer while it lasted.
Portwood is very good as Emma, the cool-headed
adulteress who tells her husband of the affair but does not reveal the
disclosure to her lover for a couple of years. Portwood shows Emma’s greater
emotional depth and lesser scheming powers, if you discount her concealment
from Jerry.
Prakapas as Robert the cuckolded husband is the
weak link in the triangle. He appears too young and inexperienced as an
intellectual, a publisher and an adulterer in his own right. Prakapas has an
American accent (he is supposed to be an Oxbridge Englishman) and was not as
convincing in the role as I would have preferred.
Knight directs with sensitivity and attention
to detail. Aside from the inevitable Pinteresque pauses (happily not overdone),
he pays attention to body language, right down to minute hand movements as the
lovers’ relationship unfolds and deteriorates.
The set is a bare platform with a couple of
chairs and a coffee table. The theatre itself is a large storage room or
perhaps showroom that holds fewer than one hundred people on plastic folding
chairs.
This may be theatre in the rough but it was a
delightful find and a thoroughly enjoyable night at the theatre.
_____
Betrayal by Harold Pinter played
from November 14 to December 1, 2013 at Strictly Designers United, 55 Fuxing
Dong Lu, Shanghai, China
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