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'Betrayal' Does Right By Pinter

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By KATHY L. GREENBERG

Tribune correspondent

Published: May 31, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - It's taken nearly 30 years for American Stage Theatre Company to produce a play by Harold Pinter, the British playwright and winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Director Todd Olson chose "Betrayal" to rectify this gap in the company's stage history. While the play may be a fine representation of Pinter's work, it does not necessarily have the qualities that would earn a new cache of Pinter fans.

The play's chronology begins at the end of a relationship between three people and moves back through time to reveal the steps leading to this point.

In spring 2008, Emma (Julie Rowe) meets her husband's best friend, Jerry (Kevin Bergen), for drinks. There is an awkward tension between them, and the reason soon becomes clear. Emma and Jerry are former lovers who haven't seen each other in a while. Emma tells him that she and her husband, Robert (Drew Decaro), are separating and that she was forced to confess their affair, which really rattles Jerry. This first scene establishes the sensitive history the three characters share, as well as their currently fractured connection to one another.

The consecutive scenes retreat into the trio's past. From 2006 to 1999, the audience follows Emma and Jerry's unsettling breakup, Emma and Robert's enlightening Venetian vacation, Robert and Jerry's strained friendship, and the beginning of an era filled with passion, guilt, anger and grief — all the usual suspects in a good soap opera.

The love triangle story has been done to death, but Pinter's restructuring of the timeline adds some texture and interest where there wouldn't be otherwise. The characters are fairly unsympathetic, which may have been the playwright's intention, so it's not hard to enjoy the slaps they give and get. Further, the stilted dialogue and numerous pauses are obvious affectations for import and may not appeal to everyone.

As such, Olson was right in admitting on opening night that the actors were forced to work new muscles. Bergen gave the most natural performance of the cast (except for T. Scott Wooten's brief but amiable appearance as the waiter). He seemed the most comfortable with Pinter's language and, as a result, brought depth to a fairly flat character.

As Emma, Rowe started off sufficiently stiff, as suited the nature of the situation. She progressively relaxed from a tired and guarded woman to someone giddy with unrealistic love. Rowe and Bergen had decent chemistry — more so than Rowe and Decaro, which would justify the affair.

Decaro vaulted the emotional gamut, playing Robert as the indifferent dude to macho jughead to huffy husband. If his focus was schizophrenic, it may be because Pinter never makes clear why Robert deserves the brunt of humiliation.

Pinter fans should certainly make the opportunity to see "Betrayal" while it's here, as should anyone seeking a nonubiquitous theater experience.

ON STAGE

"Betrayal"

WHEN: through June 22, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

WHERE: American Stage Theatre Company, 211 Third St. S., St. Petersburg

HOW MUCH: $22-$35, depending on date and time of performance; (727) 823-7529; www.americanstage.org

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