Review: Betrayal


Daniel Craig in Betrayal.
(Photo ©Brigette Lacombe)

 

That James Bond is being cuckolded nightly onstage at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre is the most startling aspect of the new revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal directed by Mike Nichols. One would have expected that the international sex symbol Daniel Craig would naturally play the role of Jerry, the literary agent involved in a year-long affair with Emma (Rachel Weisz), the beautiful wife of his best friend. Instead, Craig plays the hapless Robert, in a daring piece of casting made all the more piquant by the fact that his female co-star is also his real-life spouse, while British actor Rafe Spall, making a superb Broadway debut, plays the duplicitous interloper.

It would be nice to report that the production, representing a quick return to Broadway by Nichols after last year’s acclaimed Death of a Salesman, is a triumph. But this Betrayal feels curiously muted. It may be that the 1978 play, one of Pinter’s most popular and accessible works, simply hasn’t aged very well, with its famous gimmick of using reverse chronology to tell the story having worn thin through repetition (this is its third Broadway outing, not to mention the 1983 film version).

The concise 80-minute drama takes place in the course of nine scenes, beginning in 1977 and proceeding backwards through 1968. When the play begins, Robert is well of aware of his wife’s infidelity, spanning a period of five years during which she and her lover conducted their assignations in a flat rented specifically for that purpose. The ensuing scenes depict pivotal moments in the intertwined relationship, including Emma’s shocking revelation about the affair and her assurance to Robert that their child is indeed actually his. It culminates in a scene set nearly a decade earlier when an inebriated Emma and Jerry engage in their first torrid kiss during a booze-filled party.

As usual, Nichols has staged the proceedings with impeccable precision and visual handsomeness, accentuated by Ian MacNeil’s versatile sets which periodically descend from the rafters. Ann Roth’s costumes are perfectly in tune with the play’s ‘70s setting, as is Craig’s shaggy haircut, a far cry from his James Bond crew-cut.

But the play simply doesn’t pack the emotional punch here that it should. We never feel the necessary chemistry between the adulterous lovers, with Weisz in particular failing to convey the hungry passion that would explain her character’s ease in cheating on her husband for such a long period of time.

Craig, too, insufficiently portrays Robert’s rage and anguish at his betrayal at the hands of the two most important people in his life. Receiving the news that his wife has been sleeping with his best friend for half a decade, he barely reacts, maintaining an unflappable coolness. While this is partially the point, that these sorts of things are being handled with typical British reserve, we should see some hint of his pain. The actor admirably delivers a performance that reveals no trace of his Bond-style macho heroics, instead coming off as rather foppish. But there’s too little depth on display.

Instead, it’s Spall, whose father is the well-known British character actor Timothy Spall, who delivers the standout performance, displaying an arresting vivacity and emotional immediacy, especially in the climactic scene in which he wins Emma over via the sheer force of his passion.

Nichols has also added a homoerotic undercurrent to the proceedings, to negligible effect. Thanks to its star power, Betrayal is already a smash hit, with tickets nearly impossible to come by for its limited run. But audiences are likely to come away from this production feeling--if not exactly betrayed--at least confused as to what all the fuss is about.

Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47th St. www.Telecharge.com. 212-239-6200. Through Jan. 5.