Betrayal: By Harold Pinter

Betrayal is a play that was written by Harold Pinter in 1978. Critically regarded as one of the English playwright’s major dramatic works, featuring his characteristically economic dialogue, characters' hidden emotions and veiled motivations, and their self-absorbed competitive one-upmanship, face-saving, dishonesty, and (self-) deceptions.

Betrayal shows people in an extraordinarily civil, although complex, relationship. The play concerns the betrayal of husbands and wives in adulterous relationships, but it also explores the power relations between the genders as well as the relationship between male friends.

Betrayal was first produced by the National Theatre in London on 15 November 1978. The original cast featured Penelope Wilton as Emma, Michael Gambon as Jerry, Daniel Massey as Robert, and Artro Morris as the waiter; Wilton and Massey were married at the time. It was designed by John Bury and directed by Peter Hall. 

Pinter's particular usage of reverse chronology in structuring the plot is innovative: the first scene takes place after the affair has ended, in 1977; the final scene ends when the affair begins, in 1968; and, in between 1977 and 1968, scenes in two pivotal years (1977 and 1973) move forward chronologically. As Roger Ebert observes, in his review of the 1983 film, based on Pinter's own screenplay, "The 'Betrayal' structure strips away all artifice.” “It shows, heartlessly, that the very capacity for love itself is sometimes based on betraying not only other loved ones, but even ourselves.