Review of Loft Theatre Company production of Betrayal (2013)

Life is a back-to-front affair, according to Harold Pinter’s much-acclaimed play. We set up relationships, then try to tear them down, wallow in discontent and finally settle for compromise.

A bleak and somewhat jaundiced view, of course, but Pinter admitted the theme was based on his own long-term bout of marital infidelity. So any attempt to depict such a slice of raw self-analysis needs to truly believe in itself.

To its credit, Sue Moore’s production clearly does. It is intense and intelligent in the way it systematically peels off different layers of the three central characters as they prod and provoke each other into spasms of guilt and anguish.

Unlike many of his other works, Pinter did in this instance provide a fully-rounded theme rather than leaving audiences puzzling over ‘atmosphere’ without plot closure. But he elected to run the whole sequence of a love triangle over nine years in reverse order, ending the play with the start of the affair. The ploy can be seen as artistically daring or a gimmick to decorate what is already a well-explored subject. Take your pick.

Either way, it gives full opportunity to three performers to indulge in colourful yet tight dramatic dialogue, and in this respect Libby McKay, Dave Crossfield and A N Other are very much on the ball, striking sparks off each other in all the right moments. They work hard to develop mood and, given the simmering tension of a Venice lunch session between the two men, it’s hardly surprising that Jeremy Heynes’s attentive Italian waiter is sent scurrying without so much as a ‘grazie’.

The company’s overall commitment cannot be faulted, but where Pinter always dictates thoughtful pauses in dialogue, this is carried to an unnatural extreme in the production’s opening scene. One feels one could pop out for coffee breaks between the conversational exchanges.

Normal service is soon resumed, however, as the characters acquire real assurance.

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Peter McGarry is an experienced, independent professional theatre critic who has agreed to review Loft Theatre Company productions.

The agreement with the Loft is that Peter is free to express his opinions for good or ill. The Loft Theatre Company has no control whatsoever over the content of these reviews and will never comment publicly on what he writes.