Theatre Review —

Pregnant Pauses Aside, Pinter’s  Play Is Intriguing

By June April

NEW HAVEN — Yale Repertory Theatre’s second play of the season, Betrayal, is an intriguing work, in spite of its slower rhythm. Director Liz Diamond brings the audience a creative and sensitive production that withstands the intermissionless 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Harold Pinter’s play painstakingly paces pregnant pauses, problematic pondering, plus penetrating probes per people’s psyches. Phew!

There is a most appropriate quote from the playwright in the program, which says: “I made a terrible mistake when I was young, I think, from which I’ve never really recovered. I wrote the word ‘pause’ into my first play. I really do believe that was a fatal error because people have been reading my plays and acting my plays most of the time concerned, really obsessed, with this pause. I meant it merely as a natural break in the proceedings, or even a breath. (Pause.) But it’s become something metaphysical.”

That metaphysical state was clearly in strong operation at a recent performance at Yale Rep.

Particularly worth seeing is the female lead, Emma, played by Stephanie Roth Haberle. Miss Haberle subtly augments her role with exquisite nuances of glances and gestures, not just words. As the wayward wife Emma, she is not a woman of great depth, but one who follows her emotional and sexual drives without any sense of remorse or great passion.

The two men, her husband Robert and his best friend (and Emma’s lover) Jerry, hardly agonize over their infidelities, even when the affair is a known tryst. There are the motions of primal male territorial ownership expressed through some of their competitive squash, tennis or other sporting matches, but that too is erratic and without much commitment. Ritchie Coster plays Emma’s very accepting husband and John Hines portrays the rather lackadaisical lover.

A comic touch is added by the character of a somewhat ungainly waiter, delightfully played by William F. Reeves. When the cork didn’t quite make it out of the bottle and the waiter had to make an unexpected exit into the wings, there was an unwritten Pause experienced by actor and audience. That’s what makes theatre so special and each performance unique.

As is so often the case with writers, they are the self-acclaimed conduits of the characters. Mr Pinter acknowledged this in an interview with Mel Gussow of The New York Times in 1979. He said the dialogue of the characters, where they were speaking of the past, served to dictate the structure of the play, “and that was backwards.”

What was novel two decades ago still stands as an innovative event in dramatic structure. Rather than telling the story in a linear, chronological beginning-to-end format, Harold Pinter elected to start at the death of the relationship and then show the devolution of the affair.

The sets, created by scenic designer Adrian W. Jones, were stark, yet telling, and added a realistic dimension to the production. Ditto for the fine lighting effects created by Scott Zielinski and crew.

Playing through November 13, Betrayal is interesting, especially if it is seen as a comparative experience. Mr Pinter wrote the screenplay for the 1983 movie of the same name, which starred Ben Kingsley, Jeremy Irons and Patricia Hodge. It is available on video, and it offers Harold Pinter’s vision as a screenwriter and provides a fascinating comparison of stage versus cinema.

Showtimes are 8 pm Tuesday through Saturday, and 7 pm on Monday. There are 2 pm matinees on Saturday, November 6 and 13, and Wednesday, November 10. Ticket prices range from $26 to $34 with discounts for students, senior citizens and groups. For additional information, including details concerning special programs in conjunction with selected performances, contact Yale Rep’s box office at 203/432-1234.