Betrayal by Harold Pinter

PRESS RELEASE

BETRAYAL

By Harold Pinter

Directed by Ross Jolly

A PASSIONATE AFFAIR. TOLD IN REVERSE

An enduring dark comedy of love and deceit, Betrayal is one of Harold Pinter’s finest plays.

Betrayal opens at Circa Theatre on Saturday 24th January at 8pm, and runs until 21 February.

Unravelling from its poignant end to its blissful first kiss, Betrayal traces a seven-year illicit affair played out in reverse.

Robert and Jerry were best friends.

Robert and Emma were married.

Jerry and Emma were lovers.

Welcome to the tangled emotional world of BETRAYAL

Passionate, funny, sexy and bristling with treachery!

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2005, Harold Pinter is one of the world’s great playwrights. His plays include The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, No Man’s Land, The Homecoming and Old Times.

Harold Pinter died in London on Christmas Eve, and Betrayal (written in 1978) is his most autobiographical play based on his 7-year affair in the 1960s with Joan Bakewell (a well-known television broadcaster of the time).

Betrayal was first produced by Circa Theatre in 1980.

Starring DANIELLE MASON, TOBY LEACH, and JASON WHYTE, and introducing DANIEL ARMSTRONG, Betrayal is directed by award-winning Ross Jolly – his fifth production of a Pinter play!

“A thrillingly frank study of love, friendship and the human heart … a masterpiece”

– Daily Telegraph

“An exquisitely crafted play” – Michael Billington, Guardian

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

“I suppose all directors have favourites, and Harold Pinter is my main man.

Posthumously hailed as “the world’s leading playwright”, Pinter’s sardonic humour and brilliant, robust writing appealed immediately when seeing The Homecoming in 1970.

“I have now directed four ‘Pinters’ – The Homecoming (1992), No Man’s Land (1994), Moonlight (1995) and The Birthday Party (2002) – Betrayal will be the fifth and I love them all.

“In fact, it was after Moonlight that I received a letter from the man himself, congratulating us on our success, praising my programme notes, but rebuffing and firmly correcting an incorrect assertion. I was delighted, yet alarmed, lest I had offended my hero. Anyway, it had sparked the letter which remains a treasured icon – akin to a religious relic. Chided by Harold Pinter – what an honour!

“So, what’s it like in 2008 directing Betrayal, one of the world’s best plays, with a stellar cast. Quite simply – sublime!

“Pinter is a theatrical genius, the master craftsman – a giant. Betrayal, his moving, funny, compassionate dissection of love, is a celebration of meticulous economy, understated subtext, and rich, wonderful, lean language. It is a rare, glittering gem.

“It has been said of Pinter’s plays: “They’re not realistic. They’re so much better than that. They’re the truth.”

“I feel I know the man a little from his work. I will miss him, because I’m sure we will not see his like again – a fair cricketer, a good actor, and a playwright of rare power and originality.”

- Ross Jolly
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BETRAYAL

24th January – 21st February

$20 SPECIALS – Friday 23 January - 8pm; Sunday 25 January - 4pm.

Performance times: Tuesday & Wednesday 6.30pm

Thursday, Friday, Saturday 8pm

Sunday 4pm

Ticket Prices: Adults - $38; Concessions - $30; Friends of Circa - $28

Under 25s - $20; Groups 6+ s- $32

BOOKINGS Circa Theatre 1 Taranaki Street, Wellington

Phone 801 7992 www.circa.co.nz

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HAROLD PINTER (1930 – 2008)
Playwright

Harold Pinter was born in London in 1930. He has written twenty-nine plays including The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, twenty-one screenplays including The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman and, most recently, Sleuth and directed twenty-seven theatre productions, including James Joyce's Exiles, David Mamet's Oleanna, seven plays by Simon Gray and many of his own plays including his latest, Celebration, paired with his first, The Room at The Almeida Theatre, London in the spring of 2000.

In 2005 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Other awards include the Companion of Honour for services to Literature, the Legion D’Honneur, the Laurence Olivier Award and the Moliere D'Honneur for lifetime achievement. In 1999 he was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature. He has received honorary degrees from eighteen universities.

Harold Pinter died in London on 24th December 2008. He is survived by his second wife, Antonia Fraser.

ROSS JOLLY
Director

Founding member of Circa Theatre, Circa councillor, actor and freelance theatre and television director, Ross has directed many productions for Circa including: Master Class, Moonlight, F.I.L.T.H., Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Travels with my Aunt, Social Climbers, Taking Sides (Best Circa Production 1997), Heretic (1998 NZ International Festival of the Arts), The Cripple of Inishmaan, How I Learned to Drive, Waiting for Godot, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, ART, The Unexpected Man, The Memory of Water, The Weir, Madame Melville, Copenhagen, Life x 3, The Birthday Party, Conversations after a Burial, Ancient Lights, Humble Boy, Roger Hall’s Spreading Out (2004 Festival of the Arts), Stones in his Pockets, Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things which was nominated for Best Director and Best Production at the Chapman Tripp awards 2004, An Inspector Calls, The Mercy Seat and Democracy. In 2006 Ross directed the NZ premiere of Ross Gumbley’s Happy Coupling for the Court Theatre, and The Underpants, Wild East and a revival of Master Class for Circa. In 2007 he re-directed Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things for the Court Theatre, followed by Heroes in Circa Two before returning to the world of LaBute for Fat Pig, and ending the year with Rattigan’s modern classic, The Winslow Boy. Last year Ross directed Roger Hall’s Who Wants to be 100? (International Arts Festival), Love Song (Circa 2) and Some Girl(s) (Circa 1), and also re-directed the original cast in Heroes for a season at Expressions in Upper Hutt.
Ross won Director of the Year for his production of Waiting for Godot, at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards 1999.

TOBY LEACH
Jerry

Toby graduated from Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in 1996.
Favourite roles include Fool for Love (Bats) Hamatsa (La Mama, New York), Have Car will Travel (Bats, Silo), Meltdown, When Sun and Moon Collide, Trick of the Light, An Enemy of the People (Circa), Gross Indecency (Downstage), Cloud 9, Mr Kolpert, Plenty (Silo) Wheeler’s Luck (Auckland Theatre Co, Edinburgh Fringe, Circa), Fat Pig (Circa), Some Girl(s) (Circa), Wait Until Dark (Circa).
Television credits include Duggan, Outrageous Fortune, Facelift and most recently, Burying Brian.
Toby was nominated Best Supporting Actor at 1999 TV Awards for his role in Duggan, won the 2002 Best Supporting Actor Chapman Tripp Award for Trick of the Light, and was nominated Best Supporting Actor for his role as Carter in Fat Pig at Circa last year.

DANIELLE MASON
Emma

A 2002 graduate of Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, Danielle holds a Bachelor of Arts from Waikato University. Since completing her studies Danielle has performed widely for stage, screen and radio.
In 2004 she won Chapman Tripp Theatre awards for Best Female Newcomer in Collected Stories directed by Miranda Harcourt, and Most Outstanding Performance in The Shape of Things directed by Ross Jolly (both at Circa Theatre).
Other stage credits include Private Lives, Fond Love and Kisses, An Inspector Calls, The Remedy Syndrome, Finding Willy, Lulu, Dinner, Hitchcock Blonde, Dracula, Uncle Vanya, Finding Murdoch, The Winslow Boy, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rabbit and most recently, Love Song, Some Girl(s) and Red Riding Hood.
Danielle appears as the lead female role in the NZ feature film Black Sheep.

JASON WHYTE
Robert

Jason has an extensive list of theatre and film credits to his name.
Most recent work includes Second Hand Wedding (film), Apollo 13 Mission Control (Bats), Until Proven Innocent (TV), Mammals (Circa), Avatar (Film), The American Pilot (Circa), The Singularity (Bats) Shining City (Circa Two} Pig Hunt (Bats} Fat Pig (Circa) Death of a Salesman (Circa) and The Tutor (Circa), for which he won an Outstanding Performance Accolade at the Chapman Tripp Awards 2006. Other theatre credits include The Mercy Seat (Circa), Clockwork Orange (AK05), The Shape of Things (Circa & Court Theatre), Goldie (Auckland Theatre Co), The Collective (Bats), Gunsmoke, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Mojo, Time of my Life and Beautiful Thing (all Circa).
Jason’s screen credits also include The Insider’s Guide to Happiness (TV2) – winning Best Supporting Actor at the Screen Directors’ Guild Awards, and Kombi Nation (feature film).

DANIEL ARMSTRONG
Waiter

Daniel graduated from the New Zealand College of Performing Arts in 2008. This is his second show at Circa Theatre, having appeared in John Kolvenbach's Love Song (Circa 2) last year, while he was still a student.
Daniel was named Most Promising Youth Actor in 2003's National One Act Play competition (district level) for Pandora's Suitcase.

ENDS

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