Thursday, November 10, 2005
Pinter's 'Betrayal' at the Gate 05
Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, first and foremost, shows no fidelity to bad actors. And quite rightly so. When an actor can’t get timing correct, the trapdoor of the audience’s ire opens unmercifully. You would however expect an actor performing at The Gate to have mastered timing. It should present no difficulties. And last night on stage this was indeed the case. The particular problem for the actors in this case though, is Pinter’s renown device: the awkward silences. The play is mined with them. And awkward silences are, by definition, not about timing. They are about the absence of timing. They are of no fixed length. They are free from rules. They are, well, awkward. So it goes without saying that when the lead actress in last nights play executed her lines with impeccable timing, with all silences an equal length, she fell through the trapdoor. At which my companion bitched “The chaise long seemed less wooden than her acting.”
