Theatre: Betrayal

Everyman, Cork

At the end of Betrayal, Harold Pinter’s intriguing play, Emma and Jerry, about to embark on an adulterous affair, are framed in a doorway, with the lights shining brightly on them. It’s a memorable image, given what has gone before. In this tension-filled play, produced by London Classic Theatre, Pinter uses reverse chronology, with the opening scene featuring the former lovers meeting up in a pub, two years after their affair has ended.

Unravelling the story of the lovers and Emma’s cuckolded husband, Robert (who is Jerry’s best friend), keeps the audience interested. It’s like watching an investigation unfold.

Always one step ahead of the characters, the audience has to be alert, detecting inconsistencies between what is remembered and what happened.

The seven-year affair had an inauspicious start.

Emma could so easily have rejected Jerry’s advances, but, after one attempt at pushing him away, she succumbed to him.

There is no motivation. The play focuses on the dynamics of relationships, but doesn’t provide any easy explanations as to why the characters do what they do. Emma and Jerry’s affair seems a pastime to which they feel entitled. Their trysts are conducted in a London flat that Jerry has rented.

Both Jerry and Robert work in publishing. At one point, Emma, on holidays in Venice, is asked by her husband to sum up a book that she is reading — a book that Jerry discovered.

Emma says the book is about betrayal. And the word hangs heavy in the air between husband and wife.

Also in this pivotal scene, Robert is quite menacing when he asks Emma what she thinks of Jerry’s writing style, having discovered that she received a letter from him.

The performances by Rebecca Pownall, Steven Clarke, and Pete Collis are strong.

The set, with its fractured walls and air of decay, is like a battle zone in which a war on fidelity is played out.

* Continues until Oct 19