BETRAYAL<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle<\/p>\n
Harold Pinter\u2019s BETRAYAL is presently being performed by the Off Broadway West Theatre Company.<\/p>\n
At the onset, this complex play appears to be aiming at a precise definition of a seemingly simple word like betrayal<\/em>; in the end it seems to have diffused the word into a vaporous hollow abstraction.<\/p>\n Jerry betrays his best friend and publishing associate, Robert, by snaking Robert\u2019s wife Emma.<\/p>\n For five years Jerry and Emma conduct assignations in a cozy love flat not far from where they work \u2026 imagine eating a late afternoon lunch, with wine, perhaps a little dessert and then going home to their respective families \u2026 duplicitous almost to the point of schizoid.<\/p>\n When Robert married Emma, Jerry served as his best man.<\/p>\n Not long after the bouquet had withered and the garter had faded on the rear view mirror, Jerry ambushes Emma in her upstairs bathroom; he professes his adoration and adulterous love for her and plants the first kiss and the first brick in the road to infidelity.<\/p>\n After the affair begins to feel like a second year Birkenstock, the publishing business calls Jerry to New York leaving Emma alone with Robert.<\/p>\n In Jerry\u2019s absence, Emma compromises her romantic integrity and makes love with her own husband; naturally she finds herself pregnant and has to explain to her returning Lothario that it\u2019s okay; she was essentially faithful to him, after all, it was her own husband.<\/p>\n As C.S. Lewis once said, \u201cOnce you let go of reality, the possibilities are endless.\u201d<\/p>\n Once the subterfuges, circumlocutions and prevarications get started, the three vertices of the love triangle are no longer communicating, they are collaborating on a script.<\/p>\n Jerry, as played to the Klieg lintels by Brian O\u2019Connor, is an absolute rascal, a regular Paolo Malatesta; seducing with literary pretentions and pulp fiction in hand; you wouldn\u2019t trust Jerry at a petting zoo let alone with your wife; what was Robert thinking?<\/p>\n Emma is an enigma: an attractive woman with options whose healthy sense of entitlement assures her that good wine, good food and frequent trips to Italy are just not sufficient.<\/p>\n Director Richard Harder perhaps does his best work with Emma, who is finely played by Sylvia Kratins.<\/p>\n Kratins\u2019 Emma never sits still; her restless spirit keeps her head on a swivel, her eyes spinning like a rotifer and limbs in constant motion trying to get comfortable in the here in now while her mind is occupied elsewhere; is she Lady Macbeth or Madame Bovary?<\/p>\n Lighting is another creative strength of the show; low intensity illumination provides the audience with a keyhole feel: an intimate sense that we are eavesdropping on conversations; much in vogue these days given the liberties the NSA has taking with our liberties.<\/p>\n Keith Burkland as Robert is the axel about which the play revolves on.<\/p>\n Burkland\u2019s Robert is opaque: a mystery shrouded in a reservation.<\/p>\n Is Robert mistakenly trusting Jerry and Emma or is he disinterested to the extent that he is willing to time share little Miss Francesca di Rimini?<\/p>\n Burkland is both an artist and a craftsman; polishing and burnishing his character until you can almost feel the tweed; acting is not what he does, it is who he is.<\/p>\n BETRAYAL is the best of Pinter and Richard Harder elevates it a step higher.<\/p>\n If you enjoy intimate theater where acting is an art, you don\u2019t want to miss BETRAYAL at the Phoenix at Mason and Geary.<\/p>\n Call 1-800-838-3006 or www.offbroadwaywest.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BETRAYAL Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Harold Pinter\u2019s BETRAYAL is presently being performed by the Off Broadway West Theatre Company. At…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"