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# Cynthia Citron reviews Andak Stage Company's production of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal"
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/cynthia-citron-send-comments-to-editor-smdp-com-play-time-a-backwards-love-story/
- Published: 2008-07-04T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:05:02.000Z
- Author: Cynthia Citron
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

HAROLD PINTER’S “BETRAYAL” IS FAR too real to be made up. And if you’re at all familiar with his personal history, you’ll recognize that this womanizing playwright had to be chronicling a personal experience.

In his own life, the lady was Jane Bakewell, a journalist and television personality, with whom he carried on a clandestine seven-year affair while both of them were married to other people. In the play the lady is named Emma, and in the current production by the Andak Stage Company she is played by the dazzling Nike Doukas. Her husband Robert, a successful publisher, is played sophisticated and sardonicly by Leo Marks; and her lover, Jerry, a literary agent (and Robert’s best friend) is played with passion and angst by Daniel Reichert. They are an extraordinarily gifted trio, and they bring this three-way love story to sparkling life.

The play moves backwards from the present time, and even though Pinter’s affair with Blakewell took place in the ‘60s and he wrote the play in 1978, there is nothing anachronistic about its current setting in 2008\. And in that first scene Emma and Jerry are meeting again, several years after their affair has ended, and holding a stilted, awkward catch-up conversation. He talks about his wife Judith (a doctor) and his children; she talks about Robert and her children. He has a beer; she drinks wine. The meeting is in a neutral location, a pub, whose blackboard announces the menu: Fish and chips, Cornish pastie, bangers and mash, and curried chicken. Did you ever doubt they were in England?

After Emma confesses that she had told Robert about the affair, Jerry rushes off to see his friend (and business associate) and is disconcerted to learn that Robert has known about the affair for years and apparently doesn’t care. More explicitly, Robert says coolly, “I don’t give a shit about any of this.”

Pinter’s plays are usually not easy, but “Betrayal,” in the hands of these excellent players and the able direction of John DeMita, is not only easy, but delightful. Further, the many scene changes are handled easily and well, with the actors shoving furniture around quickly in the half-light. The functional set pieces and costumes were designed by Dean Cameron, and the lighting by Peter Strauss.

“Betrayal” will continue Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. at the tiny but tasteful New Place Studio Theatre, 10950 Peach Grove St., in North Hollywood. Do yourself a favor, and go. Call (866) 811-4111 for tickets.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 4, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/070408.pdf?ref=smdp.com)