{"id":112519,"date":"2026-11-02T16:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T00:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=112519"},"modified":"2026-11-02T16:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T00:44:11","slug":"playwrights-silences-minimal-words-maximal-cruelty-consolidate-for-excellent-betrayal-at-marin-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/playwrights-silences-minimal-words-maximal-cruelty-consolidate-for-excellent-betrayal-at-marin-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"Playwright\u2019s silences, minimal words, maximal cruelty consolidate for excellent Betrayal at Marin Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Emma (Liz Sklar) defensively listens to her husband, Robert (Charlie Semine).<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

by Woody Weingarten\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harold Pinter sure packs a brainload into his plays. Take Betrayal<\/em>, which is on stage at Marin Theatre through Nov. 15, for example.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It\u2019s tautly dramatic, with its pinpoint focus on a seven-year affair, predominantly in the \u201870s, between Emma, an art gallery owner played by Liz Sklar, one of the Bay Area\u2019s top performers (who outdoes herself in expressing and not expressing a gamut of emotions), and Jerry, a literary agent portrayed with childish joy and dumbfounded detachment by Tasso Feldman.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It\u2019s fascinating (and occasionally a tad annoying), a mystery of sorts because it\u2019s a tale told mostly backwards (but also forwards, in spurts) \u2014 with minimal dialogue, the playwright\u2019s signature. It starts with a break-up and ends with a playful, lusty seduction at the affair\u2019s beginning.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It\u2019s chuckle-worthy, a frequent break-the-tension necessity, with Charles Semine inhabiting the third side of the triangle, Robert, Emma\u2019s pompous husband, a book publisher who\u2019s long been unfaithful himself. It\u2019s funniest when Robert engages in \u2014 what for Pinter is long \u2014 a short circular soliloquy.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In the final analysis, though, it\u2019s dispiriting and sad, because each main character betrays the other two.<\/p>\n

\"\"Charlie Semine as Robert, Liz Sklar as Emma, and Tasso Feldman as Jerry.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Betrayal, a cerebral, evergreen, prize-winning play that debuted on Broadway in 1980 and has thrice been revived there, painfully explores how human beings have an innate and compulsive ability to be cruel. It surgically cuts, too, into a broad swath of concepts \u2014 self-deception, unspoken truths, power struggles, egotism, and a distortion of memories.<\/p>\n

Silence embedded in a pause, Pinter\u2019s best-known theatrical device, works exceedingly well in this saga of adultery that ultimately lacks either heroine or hero.<\/p>\n

The truth is, an audience member may at times become profoundly uncomfortable knowing an all-too-real secret or lie, knowing moreover that passive viewing won\u2019t work with this close-up portrait of three peeled human onions, that heavy listening and heavy thinking are more than occasionally required \u2014 even when the theater can be seen in a rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s true especially if the viewer seeks certainty as to who knew what, when.<\/p>\n

Pinter is so skilled he not only puts flesh on his main creations\u2019 bones with amazingly skimpy but meaningful phrases, he employs perfectly a handful of offstage characters that are referenced but never seen \u2014 including Jerry\u2019s wife, Judith; a couple of bright, young writers; and everybody\u2019s kids.<\/p>\n

For those who can\u2019t cope with unlikeable characters, the recommendation would be to spend the 1\u00be-hour run-time doing something else that you would enjoy. If, on the other hand, dissecting relationships is your thing, be sure not to miss this production.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tasso Feldman, Charlie Semine<\/span><\/strong><\/em>
\nThe characters in the play seem painfully real despite Pinter clearly preferring sentences that are limited to five or six words and sentences that would be banal if they weren\u2019t so brilliant. A Nobel Prize-winner, he reportedly based it on his own seven-year affair with a married BBC television personality, Joan Bakewell, while he was wed to actress Vivien Merchant, a relationship that ended up broken.<\/p>\n

When Jerry confesses to Robert (\u201cI was your best friend\u201d), the latter replies ironically, \u201cDon\u2019t get upset. What\u2019s the point?\u201d<\/p>\n

That question could be asked frequently. A voyeuristic audience member might not get immediate answers, nor immediately grok a nuanced cover-up.<\/p>\n

At the same time, some mini-moments overflow with emotion \u2014 when Emma and Jerry split, when a letter to Emma becomes a major clue to infidelity, when Jerry simulates a teenager in lust as he seduces Emma, when her pregnancy is disclosed, and when a moving picture of a baby being tossed in the air is projected.<\/p>\n

Carey Perloff, who has directed Pinter plays on and off since 1989, when she became his friend and worked on The Birthday Party<\/em>, proves that she understands precisely what he intends the play to be, how exacting the British accents should be, and how many beats each pause should last. As a result, the ex-American Conservatory Theater director meticulously helps sculpt Betrayal<\/em> characters into a production that many are likely to consider the very definition of excellence.<\/p>\n

Photos by David Allen<\/em><\/p>\n

Betrayal<\/em> will play at the Marin Theatre, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through Nov. 15. Tickets: $39 to $110 (plus $6 handling fee per total offer). Info: 415-388-5208 or www.marintheater.org.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Woody Weingarten is an author, theatre and arts reviewer, and long-time member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: <\/em>voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emma (Liz Sklar) defensively listens to her husband, Robert (Charlie Semine). by Woody Weingarten\u00a0 Harold Pinter sure packs a brainload into his plays. Take Betrayal, which is on stage at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":3.4,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-woody-weingarten"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"