Truth Is Elusive

Betrayal by Harold Pinter. At Ensemble Theatre Company, Friday,
September 29.

Reviewed by Bojana Hill

Betrayal is an elusive play that raises many profound questions,
most of which are left unanswered. The work explores the nature of
betrayal and its unintended consequences. Based in part on Pinter’s
own experience, this triangular love story is neither maudlin nor
judgmental. Instead, the truth of the characters’ hidden lives is
gradually exposed, like a mask being carefully removed. Betrayal
suggests that we may not know our intimate friends and lovers, and
that we may never be certain whether they know us better than we
wish.

The play opens with a screen image of a blossomed rose whose
petals slowly close back to a bud. This is a metaphor for Emma and
Jerry’s waning love affair, but it also indicates the reverse order
of the plot. The first of the nine vignette-like scenes is set in
the present. Emma and Jerry, whose relationship ended two years
earlier, are tense and anxious. As if banished from paradise, they
appear heavy with remorse. Their love has withered and gone.

The subsequent scenes proceed backward in time, each revealing a
moment in the life of two seemingly happy, ordinary families. Jerry
and Robert have been the closest of friends since college. Now
married with children, they are successful — a talented literary
agent and a prominent publisher. The underlying discontent here is
subtle; when they talk about poetry, their tone is wistful. This
may be why Jerry falls passionately in love with Emma. Nowhere in
the play is he more alive than when he declares his love for Emma,
who is ravishing in her scarlet dress: “You dazzle me, you are so
beautiful. I love you!” This last scene in the play is filled with
innocence, but only if one does not know how it will end. One
cannot help but wonder if the lovers would choose to relive their
past knowing the pain it will cause.

Ann Noble’s performance as Emma is especially poignant in the
Venetian scene. Her sensuality is magnetic, its power shifting
between husband and lover. Geoffrey Lower as the gregarious Jerry
and Hayden Adams as the stoical Robert complement each other well.
Theirs is a perfect union of heart and mind, suggesting that Emma
needed both to be fulfilled. The actors manage to appear more
youthful as the play transports them further into the past. J.S.
Bach’s Goldberg Variations punctuate each scene beautifully, and
Tal Sanders’s imaginative stage design invites us to reflect: Have
we neglected our own truths as we have collected objects? Do we
betray others because we have betrayed ourselves, first and
foremost?