Lovers lose lust at the limits of loyalty

The intimate space provided by BlueBox was the ideal setting for Harold Pinter’s intense 1978 play Betrayal. The title implies the infidelity that underpins the plot and forms part of the over-arching theme. However, its multi-layered implications stray away from the more obvious spousal infidelity that the two lovers, Emma (Naomi Said) and Jerry (Edward Caruana Galizia) subject their other halves to. It also refers to a much more nuanced and complex form of betrayal that involves their betrayal of each other – a love affair that starts passionately and fizzles out to a tense avoidance masked by awkward pleasantries.

With short musical interludes by violinist Sean Borg, the play’s scenes unravelled in reverse chronology, detailing the affair between Emma and Jerry two years after their break-up, working back to their first illicit kiss. Their relationship with Robert (Nicholas Jackman), Emma’s husband and Jerry’s best friend, is fraught with guilt and tension as they navigate varying levels of deception and multiple lies around him. Caruana Galizia’s Jerry reflected the exhilaration and joy that the thrill of the chase and subsequent conquest gives you, but this is coupled with...