Betrayal

Harold Pinter’s renowned 1978 classic reveals the lies and infidelity swirling between a woman, her publisher husband, and his best friend, a literary agent.  Pinter famously tells the story backwards, beginning when the two now former lovers have a polite reunion and ending when the affair began a decade earlier. 

This rear vision makes the lies in both their marriages all the clearer - whether mistaking petty details or white fibs or the gross, fundamental lies.  We focus on these sliding truths, not any chronological melodrama.

Sport for Jove depart from their usual older classical fare with this measured, stripped-back production directed by Cristobel Sved and staged in the intimate Old Fitz pub theatre.  Melanie Liertz’ costumes remain unchanged over the decade and her set is just simple chairs against a wall of vertical blinds, continually swivelled and allowing relief and colour from lighting changes (Verity Hampson and Yuet Yee Luna). 

Projections for each scene reveal place and the backward march of time, and oddly, just once, images of kids. The focus remains on the three actors. 

Ella Scott Lynch is an attractive and engaging Emma, dressed provocatively in red but Pinter leaves her motives and defences opaque. Her lover, Jerry, is fond and dogged; but the chemistry between them doesn’t fully ignite; Matt Hardie is perhaps too boyish for the role.

But Jerry’s bond and deceptions with his old uni mate, Robert, are well-played, as unnerving to watch as Emma’s cool lies to her husband.  As Robert, Andrew Cutcliffe is superbly threatening and watchful of both of them, and has his own infidelities to protect. 

It’s a strong cast (and Diego Retamales as a comic waiter) who catch the chirpy or deadpan lies of this British threesome.  We feel Robert’s anger but otherwise the deceptions are emotionally well-controlled, burnished by keeping civil. 

The way Pinter dresses his characters in this layered and protective English, to say nothing of the truths revealed in his famous pauses, is a delight to watch.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Kate Williams