Review - Betrayal

Hello again!  Today, to start, we get...backstory!  Whee!  I first read Harold Pinter's play Betrayal when I was in college.  I did not enjoy it.  I found the selfishness and privilege and remorselessness extremely unpleasant (which, I guess, could be the point, but still) and when I finished reading it, I threw it across the room.  My roommate at the time still teases me about it.  I've had a bad taste in my mouth about the play ever since (and we're talking over 30 years, so clearly I need to work on the whole 'I hold a grudge' part of my personality).

When the revival starring Tom Hiddleston was announced, I was briefly intrigued, because I find Hiddleston a very appealing actor.  I saw him at an event once and he was quite charming, as well.  But then I thought, no, I don't like the play.  Save money.  Which I completely intended on doing until the day last month when I rode in an elevator with Hiddleston.  I'm going to be shallow now:  jeepers, he's good-looking.  And the aura he exudes is undeniable.  So when a discount ticket offer came my way soon after, I thought what the heck?

Well, I can say I still don't like the play, but this production was interesting enough.  I described it to a friend on Facebook as 'elegantly hypnotic.'  Which it was. It was spare, attractive, intelligent.  Though, ultimately, it was totally unsatisfying to me because I don't like the play, I don't like the characters, I don't care about any of it/them.  They all lie, cheat, and expect everything will be handed to them.  Yeah, yeah, it's about betrayal and how we can't know each other or ourselves, and they're all unhappy, but blah blah blah.  Every play isn't for every person and this happens to be one of the plays that isn't for me.

Though I appreciated the performances and some of the directorial choices - I did like that all of the characters were on stage at all times, reminding us that the absent partner was always in mind - I felt pretty 'meh' about the whole thing.  I was a tad offended that the woman was in her bare feet, though I don't know exactly why (why she was shoeless or why it bothered me), and I certainly had no need for the silent character we suddenly meet towards the end of the play.  And the revolving stage - I get it, we're moving backward through time and a revolve is certainly a clear way to achieve that, but did the director know that the last Pinter revival on Broadway also used a revolving stage?  Is that the only way to do Pinter now?  The stage has to turn?  All those pauses are filled with subtext and moving in space?  Hmmm.  But I digress...

Although, shallowness returning, jeepers, Hiddleston is good-looking.  Oop, sorry.  He was really very good as Robert.  I could see (well, barely; I have to admit my mezzanine seat did not give me the best view) the controlled anger and the hidden hostility and the charming facade.  I just wished it had been in service of a different play.  I wasn't bored, but I wasn't engaged, and was mainly just co-existing with the entire proceeding.  I have to admit, however, I felt completely seen when a gent behind me suddenly yelled "THIS IS TERRIBLE" towards the end of the play.  Not that I thought Betrayal was terrible, really, but someone else had the same gut reaction I did.  I finally felt a part of things.  Which isn't such a bad result.