Betrayal

“There hasn’t been two lives, hers and mine. There’s been one life that we shared. That’s the best kind of life that you can have.”

Betrayal by Harold Pinter is your classic love triangle story famously played in reverse. The story begins in the present time when Emma is meeting with her former lover of seven years who was also her husband’s best friend and then traces backwards to the start of the affair.

Pinter is less interested in the excitement of the illicit affair and more focused on the breakdown of relationships. The affair ended 4 years previously and the relationship between the two now is spent and there is no resurrecting it. Emma has just been informed by her husband, Robert that he has been having affairs of his own that have been going on for years and their marriage is over. The breakdown of love is played out over and over again. Emma has betrayed her husband, Robert, who has likewise had extramarital affairs; Jerry has betrayed his wife and his best friend. Now Emma is losing both her husband and her ex-lover.

The comic deadpan delivery is played out well, as is the reticent English correctness. Robert has known that Jerry is having an affair with his wife for years yet they continue to keep up the appearance of a friendship. Hence this rather comical exchange between the two:
"Read any good books lately?"
"I've been reading Yeats."
"Ah, Yeats. Yes."

Besides, as Robert tells his wife, he has always liked Jerry. In fact, he likes him rather more than he likes her. Then there is the manly game of squash and the suggestion of a power struggle.

Betrayal is playing at the Herald Theatre in the Aotea Centre until the 19th July.