Betrayal, the sold-out London hit starring Tom Hiddleston, Zawe Ashton, and Charlie Cox comes to Broadway for a strictly limited engagement.
Direct from a standing-room-only hit run in London, Betrayal is the story of an illicit affair that unfolds in reverse—from the end of a marriage to the first forbidden spark. Starring Golden Globe and Olivier Award winner Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers), Zawe Ashton (Velvet Buzzsaw) and Charlie Cox (Daredevil) in their Broadway debuts, this stunning production features the daring vision of one of the UK's most acclaimed directors.
Director Jamie Lloyd's production, the play's third Broadway revival in 18 years, is capably acted but spare, gray and chilly; there is no set but two wooden chairs, a small folding table and a back wall that sometimes moves forward or backward. In each of the two-person scenes, the absent character lingers onstage like a gloomy ghost, sometimes nursing a drink. Everything seems intended to suggest the very English repression of great passions that the play never actually conveys. At the performance I attended, Hiddleston's icy facade cracked-during the scene in which he discovers his wife's adultery-to release a physical outpouring of fluid so profuse that it seemed like a magic trick, as though the actor had swiftly turned on and off a faucet that was hidden in his face. It was a strange and incongruous moment, and it provided a welcome burst of surprise in a production that is otherwise a chic and dreary affair.
Pinter-and the brilliant trio of actors here-treat this uneasy dance as a particularly British game, where everyone is terrifically polite and sporting when they should be shouting, screaming and throwing suitcases out of windows. Instead, here a life-changing revelation is followed by a clipped inquiry into favorite books and summer holiday destinations.
1980 | Broadway |
Broadway |
2000 | Broadway |
Roundabout Revival Broadway |
2013 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2019 | West End |
London Revival at Harold Pinter Theatre West End |
2019 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Tom Hiddleston |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Betrayal |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Tom Hiddleston |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Jamie Lloyd |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Betrayal |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Jamie Lloyd |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Tom Hiddleston |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Betrayal |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Soutra Gilmour |
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