'Betrayal' at the Pinter

The Harold Pinter Theatre in London has been doing a season of all of Pinter's short plays. I went, in October, to the first production, 'Pinter 1', and last weekend I went, with friends, to the final production, a performance of 'Betrayal', Pinter's semi-autobiographical play, based on his affair with Joan Bakewell. 

This production has a small, but very impressive cast  Tom Hiddleston as 'Robert' , Zawe Ashton as 'Emma', Robert's wife, and Charlie Cox as 'Jerry', Robert's best friend, and Emma's lover. 

There is a beautifully minimalist set  -a slightly marbled effect backdrop which changes  with lighting between subtle pinks, greys  and blues in different scenes , and then just a couple of chairs, and at times a folding table. The stage has a revolve, which is used sparingly, and effectively!    

It's very good. The minimalism of the set means that the focus is really on the characters, and their relationships, and the actors portray these extremely well. The betrayals are, of course, not  just the obvious ones of Emma's adultery, but also Robert's betrayal of her, through his own adultery (which we learn of at the start of the play, and Emma, due to the reverse chronology, learns of  after the end of her affair with Jerry) , Emma's betrayal of Jerry, in lying to her about what, and when, Robert knows of their relationship, and the ways in which Robert and Jerry betray their friendships with one another.

Photo (c) The Jamie Lloyd Company, via Facebook

There are moments of comedy - Jerry's panic as he tries, in speaking with Robert, to remember what he is supposed to know, and what he only knows from Emma's clandestine letters, about Robert and Emma's trip to Venice, and Robert stabs viciously at his melon, and knowingly, and maliciously comments to watch Jerry squirm, however, in the same scene, Hiddleston manages to portray Roberts grief and loss, as he appears close to tears.

Programme

All of the characters are on stage all of the time, so their presence is felt in every interaction between the other two  - every time Jerry and Emma are together, Robert is in the background, not present in body, but there in their, and our, consciousness.

In short, i was impressed. It's well worth seeing, and I'd have to admit that while it does nothing to change my view that Pinter probably wasn't a very nice person, I have to admit he was a pretty good playwright! 

And Tom Hiddleston is undoubtedly an excellent actor . Both Zawe Ashton and Charlie Cox are also excellent in this, but I  think of the three characters, Robert is central, and so Hiddleston's role is central.  

The play is on until 1st June, and tickets are still available (although mostly, not cheap). If you have a chance, it is well worth seeing. 

Dickens vs Tolstoy

I heard via a friend that there was an event in London, a debate between Simon Schama and John Mullan about the merits of Tolstoy and Dickens, respectively, with support from a stella cast. So I went.

In walking to the venue from the tube station, I came across this rather nice piece of sculpture, celebrating those who fought for Women's suffrage, which was a pleasant surprise.

The event itself had been arranged by an organisation called Intelligence Squared , which apparently hosts regular debates and other events, and was held in the Emmanuel Centre, which is a church and conference centre, and has an impressive circular auditorium, where the event was held.   

John Mullan, Bonnie Greer OBE, Simon Schama

John Mullan (Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at UCL) advocated for Charles Dickens, and Simon Schama (Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University, NY), for Leo Tolstoy, with Bonnie Greer moderating, although it quickly became clear that this was a friendly debate, with both speakers, although championing their own writer, being  enthusiastic about the other as well.

L-R Kit Kingsley, Zawe Ashton, Timothy West, Julia Sawalha, Tom Hiddleston

They were supported by dramatic readings from Timothy West, Zawe Ashton, Julia Sawalha, Tom Hiddleston, and (making his professional debut`), a young boy named Kit Kingsley, who gave a very effective Pip, to Timothy West's Magwitch, as they read the opening scene of Great Expectations. Kit did an excellent job as a terrified young Pip, and Timothy West as a terrifying Magwitch!

We also got to hear further scenes from Great Expectations (Julia Sawalha and Zawe Ashton as Miss Havisham and Estella), and from David Copperfield,and a reading from Tom Hiddleston from the opening chapter of Bleak House.(with much fog, and a note from Prof. Mullan that the line "As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill" contains the first dinosaur in English Literature.)

Then Simon Schama got his chance to champion Tolstoy. He talked about how much Tolstoy admired Dickens, and that he even saw Dickens perform A Christmas Carol once, but that he himself did not write to be performed, or read his own work publicly. He argued that Dickens wrote characters, but the Tolstoy wrote people, (he also admitted that 'Tolstoy's joke book is a bit thin')

He also spoke about how Tolstoy's own experiences of war influenced him, and we heard Tom Hiddleston read from Hadji Murat, which depicts the aftermath of war in Chechnya.

We then got to see Julia Sawalha and Zawe Ashton as the sisters Shcherbatsky (Anna Karenina),  Tom Hiddleston and Zawe Ashton as Kitty and Levin, as Levin panics about childbirth..  with Hiddleston reading the text)


There was also a scene between Pierre (Hiddleston) and Natasha (Ashton), and another with Hiddleston as Vronsky, and Sawalha as Anna.

We were all polled on our way into the debate, at which time Dickens took 44% of the vote, with Tolstoy on 40% and the remaining 8% undecided. At the end, Tolstoy had taken the lead, scoring 53%. I suspect that this may well be attributable to Simon Schama's  tactical use of Tom Hiddleston, given the make up of the audience, but perhaps I am mistaken and there were just a lot of fans of classic Russian literature!  

The whole evening was recorded and apparently video will be available here soon.