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ON THIS MONTH: THEATRE<br />
Betrayal<br />
But who’s betraying who?<br />
Photo of Chris Parke (as Jerry) by Keith Gilbert<br />
To begin with, the working title for the play was<br />
‘Unsolicited Manuscript’. And then, because a<br />
crucial scene is set in Venice, it became ‘Torcello’.<br />
Later it was ‘White Wedding’. But before that,<br />
it had been ‘Betrayal’, and, eventually, ‘Betrayal’<br />
it became. Certainly there are many and varied<br />
types of betrayal going on in Harold Pinter’s<br />
play that the <strong>Lewes</strong> Little Theatre are presenting,<br />
forty years on from its opening night at the<br />
National Theatre on 15th November, 1978.<br />
Jerry, a literary agent, is married to Judith, a<br />
doctor. They have two children, Sam and Sarah.<br />
Jerry’s ‘best and oldest’ friend is Robert, a publisher,<br />
married to Emma. Again, two children,<br />
Charlotte and Ned. But oh dear, Emma and Jerry<br />
are having an affair. And by the time Robert finds<br />
out about it, it’s already been going on for five<br />
years. They’ve even set up a love nest in Kilburn.<br />
So, Emma is betraying Robert. Jerry is betraying<br />
Judith. The subject of a new novel that Emma is<br />
reading in Venice, represented by Jerry’s agency,<br />
turned down by Robert, may be betrayal. Robert<br />
believes so. Emma disagrees. But then, as Robert<br />
concedes, he may have been ‘thinking of the<br />
wrong book’. And we’re soon told that Robert<br />
has been betraying Emma, in serial infidelities,<br />
for donkey’s years. So, myriad betrayals, and yet<br />
it would seem that for Pinter the chief betrayal is<br />
Robert knowing about Jerry’s affair with his wife,<br />
and withholding that knowledge from Jerry.<br />
The play is told in reverse, so none of this account<br />
is really giving anything away. Apart from<br />
a rather dumb Italian waiter in one scene (not in<br />
Venice) the only three characters who appear are<br />
Robert, Emma and Jerry.<br />
When the play opened it was rather panned by<br />
the critics. Pinter’s excursion into North West<br />
London adultery was thought to be, how can<br />
one put this, a betrayal of the highly individual,<br />
edgy worlds that he had created in such plays<br />
as The Homecoming and No Man’s Land. But<br />
over the years the play’s standing in the Pinter<br />
canon has improved considerably. Even Michael<br />
Billington, one of its chief detractors when it<br />
opened, has recanted.<br />
And perhaps even Joan Bakewell has forgiven<br />
Pinter. It’s been well known for some time now<br />
that Betrayal was closely based on her years-long<br />
affair with the playwright when he was married<br />
to his first wife, the actress Vivien Merchant.<br />
Not something we perhaps needed to know.<br />
As someone observed at the time, it’s rather<br />
like finding out that Hedda Gabler is based on<br />
Valerie Singleton.<br />
A diary entry in Antonia Fraser’s book Must You<br />
Go?: My Life with Harold Pinter reads: ‘Harold<br />
told Joan about Betrayal in the Ladbroke Arms.<br />
She is “in a state of shock”. He always knew this<br />
was going to be quite a meeting. Me, idiotically:<br />
“Apart from that, did she like the play?” Harold:<br />
“That would be like asking Mrs Lincoln the same<br />
question.” I am a fool.’ David Jarman<br />
39