"Betrayal" is a new and bold approach. Pinter has found a way to make memory active and dramatic, offering the audience the experience of the mind's accelerating dynamic as it composes the past with a combinatory sense of curiosity and melancholy. It portrays man betrayed not only by man but also by time - a recurring theme that has found its proper stage representation. Pinter captures the subtle maneuvers of the soul for self-respect with a sarcastic forgiveness.

Pinter's narrative method takes the "what's next?" from the viewer and replaces it with the deeper "how?" and "why?". Why did love pass? How did these people cope with lies, evasions, sudden dangers, panic, and the conflicting emotions behind their skillfully constructed masks? The subject of the play is not sex, not even adultery, but the politics of betrayal and the damage it inflicts on all involved.

First staged at the National Theatre in 1978, "Betrayal" was revived in 1991 at London's Almeida Theatre. Twenty years after its debut, it returned to the National in 1998.

Pages: 128, Dimensions: 12.5x12.5cm