"Betrayal" ★★ baub

Give it to Nobel-Prize winner Harold Pinter for understanding titles. His three-hander "Betrayal," written in 1978, is about three empty, self-indulgent people, all of whom deserve to be betrayed, or at the very least doomed to spend eternity with each other. The play takes place in mid-1970s London, and could be seen as a lampoon of Mid-Century English mores, but this Marin Theatre Company production, directed by Carey Perloff, contains little humor or irony. 

We open with a delicious example of two people at a small table in a café, drinking tea and talking while saying nothing they really feel to each other. Emma (the excellent Liz Sklar) has decided to invite her ex-lover Jerry (Tasso Feldman) to tea. She has recently discovered her husband, Robert (Charlie Semine) has been unfaithful to her for years, while she has all the while been unfaithful to him with Jerry, who happens to be Robert's oldest and closest friend. So Jerry has managed to be unfaithful times two. 

But Jerry is such a schmuck. It never makes sense what Emma sees in him. Robert shares betrayability with Jerry but at least he's tall and good-looking. 

The sets, beautifully designed by Yuki Izumihara (with fine musical interludes by Fiona Sharkey during set changes), are either today's living room, or the past's London flat where for seven years Emma and Jerry had their Thursday Afternoon Doodling Date.

Pinter is a national treasure. If you're a fan, you'll see more of what you love. If not, you may end up feeling disheartened by characters who never open up, concealing how they really feel, not only from each other, but from us. 

RATINGS: ★★ baub

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants Two Stars with a Bauble of Despair to Marin Theatre's production of "Betrayal." Despair haunts any Harold Pinter production, so the baub should not be surprising. This review has been written during a celebratory week in American politics. We refuse to feel as empty as Emma, Jerry and Robert.

"Betrayal"

Marin Theatre

397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley

Through Nov 15

$39-$110