In This ‘Betrayal,’ Are They Really Friends?

Harold Pinter’s rigorous dissection of an extramarital affair, “Betrayal,” is under the microscope in Pacific Resident Theatre’s tiny second space.

The most unusual aspect of Tom McDermott’s staging is that the two men in the play’s romantic triangle look about a decade apart in age, even though they’re supposed to have been best friends going back to their mutual university days.

Robert (Richard Fancy) looks as if he’s in his mid-50s, and Jerry (Stephen Hoye) in his mid-40s. Of course, men from somewhat different eras can become friends, but there’s little evidence that there ever was much fraternal intimacy between these two. It feels like a mere business acquaintanceship, which diminishes the play’s point that the betrayal is between the two men as much as between the marrieds.

Suzanne Ford’s Emma, who is Robert’s wife and Jerry’s lover, looks younger than both of the men, perhaps in her mid-30s. Because of her age and the discrepancy in the men’s ages, it’s easy to imagine that she finds the younger Jerry more compatible, and that she has long doubted the wisdom of having married Robert--not only because he’s a cold fish, but also because he’s from a different generation. So for this particular purpose, the age differences make sense, though it’s probably not what Pinter intended.

Age issues aside, the performances are very good. Fancy appears to have a sneer surgically implanted on his face as well as in his voice. Hoye and Ford are both skilled at delineating the difference between the dead air at the end of their affair and their earlier irrational exuberance. Chris McCabe plays the small role of a waiter with a sense of style.

The action generally moves from the end of the affair back toward the beginning--although there are a couple of scene transitions that briefly reverse that pattern. So the most passionate scene is at the end, and the turning point of the affair--in a scene set in Venice--is the play’s centerpiece. The play’s fictional events loosely parallel those of an affair that Pinter had with English TV personality Joan Bakewell during the ‘60s, according to Pinter biographer Michael Billington.

“Betrayal” covers eight years in nine scenes that are set in seven locales. Not surprisingly, this creates lengthy blackouts between scenes in theaters like this one, where everything is moved by hand.

But this production fills the gaps admirably with Keith Stevenson’s rich mix of recorded music that fits the play’s shifting moods, from Miles Davis to blues to opera. John Berger designed the spare but effective set.

“Betrayal,” Pacific Resident Theatre, 705 1/2 Venice Blvd., Venice. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. (310) 822-8392. $20-$23.50. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.