A Saturday 5:30 p.m. curtain allowed me to sandwich “American Utopia” between two choice dramas, the sensational Tom Hiddleston-led revival of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre and the equally gripping production of Adam Rapp’s “The Sound Inside” at Studio 54.
I confess that when it was announced that Broadway was importing Pinter’s sinewy drama of marital infidelity, I let out a groan. It wasn’t that long ago that Mike Nichols’ production of “Betrayal” with Daniel Craig, Rafe Spall and Rachel Weisz was failing to live up to all its Broadway buzz. Before that, there was the misfire of many accents with Juliette Binoche, Liev Schreiber and John Slattery. Pinter’s pauses haven’t lost their menacing luster, but these two previous Broadway revivals, smacking as they did of prestige showcases for restless screen stars, didn’t shore up the standing of this 1978 play as a modern classic. Another “Betrayal” seemed to me a failure of producing imagination.
But the new production, directed by Jamie Lloyd with a fashionable sleekness containing genuine depth, may be the best I’ve seen. Hiddleston, an actor of uncommon intelligence and Pre-Raphaelite beauty (if the Pre-Raphaelites had access to the best Pilates trainers), is ably joined by Zawe Ashton and Charlie Cox in a glamorous production that resonantly draws out the geometric configurations of the drama.
“Betrayal,” the story of an adulterous affair between Emma (Ashton) and Jerry (Cox), a literary agent who’s the best friend of her book publisher husband, Robert (Hiddleston), unfolds in clipped remarks and swallowed sentiments as the play travels back in time from the end of the extramarital romance to its besotted beginnings. Pinter burns away exposition to reveal the alarming mystery of human relations and the way communication is used to conceal the truth from those with the power to inflict the most pain.
A sign of the success of this “Betrayal” is the attentiveness with which the audience tracked the tense love triangle. I can’t remember ever hearing a Broadway audience listen so loudly. This energetic silence was an enthralling sound, affirming that language in the hands of a master playwright is still all that’s needed to seize the imagination of theatergoers.
An elegant cast certainly doesn’t hurt. Posh English actors in a lauded London import are a familiar sight on Broadway, and they don’t get much posher than Hiddleston, whose distinguished stage resume (he was the best Coriolanus I’ve seen) exists on a parallel track with his Marvel Studios film credits.
But one of the fascinations with this “Betrayal” was taking in the changing aspect of British acting, the subtle variations in self-presentation that reveal not only character but changing mores. The ensemble lets slip more emotion in the cracks of the characters’ reserve than is customary for Pinter.
Tears glisten from time to time in the eyes of Cox’s Jerry and Ashton’s Emma, but you’ll have to pay close attention because almost as soon as they appear, they disappear. Hiddleston’s Robert, a wall of cool masculinity in the well-cut suit of a literary businessman, doesn’t weep. But he does provide a glimpse into what Robert’s implacable façade costs him.
The precision of the actors, sharpened no doubt by their film training, is mesmerizing as their characters zigzag back in time. The reverse chronology of the plot can induce a detachment in the audience, but the movement into the past is shattering here. This “Betrayal” honors Pinter by making his style seem both of his own era and of ours.
My favourite quote: 'Hiddleston, an actor of uncommon intelligence and Pre-Raphaelite beauty (if the Pre-Raphaelites had access to the best Pilates trainers)..."
Charles McNulty, Theatre Critic for The Los Angeles Times, 19th November 2019
