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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2018 10:14:49 GMT
I‘m very nervous about that too. Coriolanus sold out so quickly and while this one is bigger I’m still super scared to miss out. Do you think they will limit the number of tickets one can buy? There is an FAQ on ticket booking for Betrayal - www.pinteratthepinter.com/betrayal--faqsThis is a clever bit of marketing for the current season  Also worth noting: and they say there is a limit of 4 tickets per person. |
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Post by Jan on Nov 16, 2018 10:50:23 GMT
I saw that Almeida production. Very good as i recall. Will book for this new one, bringing the kiddiwinks as a treat. The grandchildren I assume you mean. Of course this play is based closely on Pinter’s own affair with the then married Joan Bakewell who old people like us remember from all those arts programmes she used to present - she used to be referred to as “the thinking man’s crumpet”, a description coined by Frank Muir. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2018 10:56:49 GMT
I saw that Almeida production. Very good as i recall. Will book for this new one, bringing the kiddiwinks as a treat. The grandchildren I assume you mean. Of course this play is based closely on Pinter’s own affair with the then married Joan Bakewell who old people like us remember from all those arts programmes she used to present - she used to be referred to as “the thinking man’s crumpet”. And let's not forget that Pinter was also having another affair with another woman while having an affair with Joan. So cheating on the woman that he was cheating on his wife with. At the same time. Keeping each one a secret from the other. My. What a guy. |
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Post by Jan on Nov 16, 2018 11:10:28 GMT
The grandchildren I assume you mean. Of course this play is based closely on Pinter’s own affair with the then married Joan Bakewell who old people like us remember from all those arts programmes she used to present - she used to be referred to as “the thinking man’s crumpet”. And let's not forget that Pinter was also having another affair with another woman while having an affair with Joan. So cheating on the woman that he was cheating on his wife with. At the same time. Keeping each one a secret from the other. My. What a guy. However as his subsequent affair with Antonia Fraser led, albeit indirectly, to the death of his wife Vivien Merchant, we should somewhat temper our admiration. Several very good playwrights who in public have occupied the high moral ground have indulged in doubtful behaviour in their private lives of course, Arthur Miller being another. Ibsen too. |
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Post by learfan on Nov 16, 2018 12:11:51 GMT
I saw that Almeida production. Very good as i recall. Will book for this new one, bringing the kiddiwinks as a treat. The grandchildren I assume you mean. Of course this play is based closely on Pinter’s own affair with the then married Joan Bakewell who old people like us remember from all those arts programmes she used to present - she used to be referred to as “the thinking man’s crumpet”, a description coined by Frank Muir. Oh very droll! My two are 23 an 20, im only 53 so no grandkids yet. I know La Bakewell from archive footage. I did in fact sit next to her at the NT Pinter celebration ten years ago, had a nice chat. |
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Post by kathryn on Nov 16, 2018 12:18:54 GMT
And let's not forget that Pinter was also having another affair with another woman while having an affair with Joan. So cheating on the woman that he was cheating on his wife with. At the same time. Keeping each one a secret from the other. My. What a guy. However as his subsequent affair with Antonia Fraser led, albeit indirectly, to the death of his wife Vivien Merchant, we should somewhat temper our admiration. Several very good playwrights who in public have occupied the high moral ground have indulged in doubtful behaviour in their private lives of course, Arthur Miller being another. Ibsen too. Hmm, it does seem to be the case that many great writers are terrible hypocrites! Can anyone think of any who are entirely virtuous and didn't have any skeletons in their closet? Though I am not entirely sure if that's to do with being a great writer, as much as it's to do with being human, to be fair. |
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Post by zahidf on Nov 16, 2018 12:42:31 GMT
Pinter never pretended to be anything other than a Tw*t though did he? He plays (as I read them) don't moralise
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Post by Jan on Nov 16, 2018 18:10:52 GMT
Pinter never pretended to be anything other than a Tw*t though did he? He took himself very seriously, sure of his own moral purity, look at his Nobel prize acceptance speech for example. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2018 19:31:20 GMT
I saw Pinter once in the Crucible audience. It was during their Pinter season years ago, and it was a reading of a radio play with Prunella Scales and Tim West, and then a Q&A with them and Sam West, when he was AD at the Crucible. Pinter was sitting just behind me,and the lady next to me was RANTING at the interval about what a load of pompous sh*t it all was, with her companion nudging and nudging and kicking her to try and make her shut up. He just sat there sort of smiling. I'd forgotten all about it til just now. Ahh, that was a good evening.
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Post by nash16 on Nov 16, 2018 21:10:31 GMT
The "trailer" for this is HI-LARIOUS. What is he on? Which ‘he’ are you referring to? Hiddles? Jamie Lloyd? I haven’t seen a set of credits for the trailer so I don’t think anyone knows who came up with the idea, directed it, where the music comes from, etc. Might have been done by someone in the marketing department at Jamie Lloyd Co. Def Hiddles. It doesn't seem to be saying...anything about the play. You have to slightly ask what the point of it is? It does make me laugh though. |
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Post by kathryn on Nov 16, 2018 21:25:48 GMT
The point of it was to generate a huge amount of speculation among his fans on social media about what it was, and get a bunch of click-baity press coverage. Which it has done very successfully.
The idea was clearly not to say anything about the play, but to create a bit of a mystery. The original version didn’t even indicate that it was a play - quite a few people speculated that it might be Marvel-related, so it got coverage on geek-oriented sites that don’t normally write about theatre.
In other words, it’s a piece of marketing.
This is why an NT live broadcast would not surprise me. It looks like they are aiming for a wider audience than the normal theatre crowd.
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Post by zahidf on Nov 17, 2018 0:34:30 GMT
The point of it was to generate a huge amount of speculation among his fans on social media about what it was, and get a bunch of click-baity press coverage. Which it has done very successfully. The idea was clearly not to say anything about the play, but to create a bit of a mystery. The original version didn’t even indicate that it was a play - quite a few people speculated that it might be Marvel-related, so it got coverage on geek-oriented sites that don’t normally write about theatre. In other words, it’s a piece of marketing. This is why an NT live broadcast would not surprise me. It looks like they are aiming for a wider audience than the normal theatre crowd. Yup. I imagine it'll be a money spinner. |
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Post by Jan on Nov 17, 2018 8:29:03 GMT
I saw Pinter once in the Crucible audience. It was during their Pinter season years ago, and it was a reading of a radio play with Prunella Scales and Tim West, and then a Q&A with them and Sam West, when he was AD at the Crucible. Pinter was sitting just behind me,and the lady next to me was RANTING at the interval about what a load of pompous sh*t it all was, with her companion nudging and nudging and kicking her to try and make her shut up. He just sat there sort of smiling. I'd forgotten all about it til just now. Ahh, that was a good evening. When “A View From The Bridge” was on at NT all the people around me stayed in their seats at the interval and I delivered an analysis of the play to my companion along the lines of “Not his best work really - the attempt to link it to Greek tragedy is not really worked through, but not a bad effort etc”. At the end of the play the director came on and invited Arthur Miller, sitting directly behind me, to stand up. |
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Post by learfan on Nov 17, 2018 9:06:17 GMT
I saw Pinter once in the Crucible audience. It was during their Pinter season years ago, and it was a reading of a radio play with Prunella Scales and Tim West, and then a Q&A with them and Sam West, when he was AD at the Crucible. Pinter was sitting just behind me,and the lady next to me was RANTING at the interval about what a load of pompous sh*t it all was, with her companion nudging and nudging and kicking her to try and make her shut up. He just sat there sort of smiling. I'd forgotten all about it til just now. Ahh, that was a good evening. When “A View From The Bridge” was on at NT all the people around me stayed in their seats at the interval and I delivered an analysis of the play to my companion along the lines of “Not his best work really - the attempt to link it to Greek tragedy is not really worked through, but not a bad effort etc”. At the end of the play the director came on and invited Arthur Miller, sitting directly behind me, to stand up. Haha. Did you engage the great man in conversation? |
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Post by Jan on Nov 17, 2018 9:27:43 GMT
When “A View From The Bridge” was on at NT all the people around me stayed in their seats at the interval and I delivered an analysis of the play to my companion along the lines of “Not his best work really - the attempt to link it to Greek tragedy is not really worked through, but not a bad effort etc”. At the end of the play the director came on and invited Arthur Miller, sitting directly behind me, to stand up. Haha. Did you engage the great man in conversation? No. Another time queuing to get into "The Mysteries" at NT there was some bloke in the queue behind showing off by explaining the source texts and the purpose of the plays and so on - after raised eyebrows and sighing I eventually said to my companion "What a know-it-all !" and I turned round to look at him and it was, of course, Tony Harrison, the author of the plays. |
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Post by kathryn on Nov 17, 2018 10:10:57 GMT
There seems to be a theme to these stories 😂
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Post by Jan on Nov 18, 2018 9:47:51 GMT
Oh how odd, Hiddleston is playing the husband (Robert) in the play, not the lover (Jerry). The Ben Kingsley part not the Jeremy Irons part. Seems wrong.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2018 10:11:32 GMT
I guess he wants to do something different. He's played lots of lover types in the past and it's probably the obvious role for him to be cast in so he probably wants to diversify and set his career up for more mature roles as he heads towards and into his 40s.
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Post by peggs on Nov 18, 2018 13:12:23 GMT
Now my abiding memory from the Donmar version was the icey moment when I thought Sam West's husband was going to hit his wife and for that reason I rather hoped he'd take that part.
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Post by kathryn on Nov 18, 2018 13:42:53 GMT
He read the part of Robert at the Birthday Gala, so I didn’t realise that people would expect him to be Jerry. I’m interested to know why, if that can be articulated without massive spoilers! Is Jerry generally considered the juicier part?
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Post by Steve on Nov 18, 2018 14:35:50 GMT
He read the part of Robert at the Birthday Gala, so I didn’t realise that people would expect him to be Jerry. I’m interested to know why, if that can be articulated without massive spoilers! Is Jerry generally considered the juicier part? It's a very hard play to spoil, as it's played backwards. It's like a Colombo mystery, where it's not WHAT happens that you are interested in, rather HOW it happens.
Since it's a thinly veiled story about Pinter having an affair with his friend's wife, and since Pinter's character is called Jerry, that is the lead, as it is through his experience of the affair that the affair is deconstructed.
One of Florian Zeller's plays, that you may have seen, pinches the plot of this and plays it chronologically for laughs, and once again there, the "Jerry" character is the lead, whose viewpoint we follow.
In this, Robert is Pinter's friend, a more enigmatic character. Although it is surprising that it is not Hiddleston's character's viewpoint that we will be following, that is what I find exciting about this, as it allows Hiddleston to do something different. Certainly, at the gala, he seemed a lot colder than we've come to expect from him, and I like that.
When I look back on the Kristen Scott Thomas Betrayal, it is Ben Miles' tough and glacial Robert that resonates most for me. I think this will be good.
Zawe Ashton played Emma (Robert's wife) opposite Hiddleston's Robert at the Gala, so it will be interesting to see if she is Emma in this. |
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Post by kathryn on Nov 18, 2018 14:54:57 GMT
Interesting. I wonder who Jerry will be? Do they have another star name lined up, or is this going to be the chance for a relatively unknown theatre/character actor to reach a new audience?
I think it will make a big difference to the type of performance Hiddleston gives - I’ve noticed that he is quite happy to dial it back and let another character actor shine, but when he’s working with a thudding great star he will steal scenes out from under them.
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Post by learfan on Nov 18, 2018 16:11:01 GMT
Will be amazed if there arent two more stars cast in this. James McAvoy is v close to Jamie Lloyd so...
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Post by Rory on Nov 18, 2018 16:18:49 GMT
Would like to see this a lot but the thought of paying something like £90 for a decent seat with a noisy TH fan base all around puts me off a bit. I remember seeing Little Malcolm with Ewan McGregor at the same theatre and the audience nearly ruined the whole experience.
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Post by kathryn on Nov 18, 2018 17:02:31 GMT
Will be amazed if there arent two more stars cast in this. James McAvoy is v close to Jamie Lloyd so... Now that would be a tasty bit of casting! Don’t think there are any obvious filming conflicts that would preclude it, but I admit I don’t follow McAvoy news that closely. His last stage outing was 2015, so I expect he will be back on stage in the next year or so whether he does this or not - a play every 3-4 years seems to be his pattern. |
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