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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
This was a very easy and quick read and I'm glad it was so short, because it didn't spark my interest all that much and I found it pretty dry at times.
I picked this up after hearing the opening scene delivered as a radio play by Andrew Scott and Olivia Coleman during a script-writing class.
I hadn't encountered a play that went backwards in time with its scenes since a very entertaining murder mystery many years ago at The Edinburgh Fringe. I still remember some great lines as the incompetent detective was led backwards through time from his sadly misfiring reveal scene to the moment of the murder - where it transpired that all the suspects had poisoned the horrible victim's drink.
However, I digress. I found Pinter's the Betrayal to be a tersely economic to the point of enigmatic script charting an affair in reverse. I can see (and hear in Scott and Coleman's performances) what a gift this would be to quality actors. I was curious to hear that Pinter himself hated being drawn on the matter of what the play was about, or what he was trying to say, and in deed was furious that one of his throwaway remarks was seized upon as gospel truth in the press. I don't feel necessarily that this play had a great message, it was simply putting people under the microscope and charting their twists and turns under immediate pressures rather than in response to grand angsts and strategies.
I hadn't encountered a play that went backwards in time with its scenes since a very entertaining murder mystery many years ago at The Edinburgh Fringe. I still remember some great lines as the incompetent detective was led backwards through time from his sadly misfiring reveal scene to the moment of the murder - where it transpired that all the suspects had poisoned the horrible victim's drink.
However, I digress. I found Pinter's the Betrayal to be a tersely economic to the point of enigmatic script charting an affair in reverse. I can see (and hear in Scott and Coleman's performances) what a gift this would be to quality actors. I was curious to hear that Pinter himself hated being drawn on the matter of what the play was about, or what he was trying to say, and in deed was furious that one of his throwaway remarks was seized upon as gospel truth in the press. I don't feel necessarily that this play had a great message, it was simply putting people under the microscope and charting their twists and turns under immediate pressures rather than in response to grand angsts and strategies.