Betrayal - member and critics reviews.

This is the place to discuss all of Mr. Craig's work on stage.

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Dunda
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Post by Dunda »

It would have been intersting to read a review of this play from the late Roger Ebert.

He review the 1983 movie with Ben kingsley as Robert and wrote the following

"The performances are perfectly matched. Ben Kingsley (of "Gandhi") plays Robert, the publisher, with such painfully controlled fury that there are times when he actually is frightening."

And that's exactly what captivated me watching Daniel in this role.
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Germangirl
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Post by Germangirl »

Dunda wrote:It would have been intersting to read a review of this play from the late Roger Ebert.

He review the 1983 movie with Ben kingsley as Robert and wrote the following

"The performances are perfectly matched. Ben Kingsley (of "Gandhi") plays Robert, the publisher, with such painfully controlled fury that there are times when he actually is frightening."

And that's exactly what captivated me watching Daniel in this role.
As so often in his portayals, you have to actually LOOK to see his wonderful subtle acting. What I get from your reviews is, that Jerry is louder and less subtle and hence easier to notice. We have often acknowledged, that Daniels subtle acting, which actually makes him so great, is understood as not acting at all or making always the same face.

I only have to remember the mirror scene of CR - he is hardly moving anything in his face and still - there is so much there.
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

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Post by Sylvia's girl »

Dunda wrote:It would have been intersting to read a review of this play from the late Roger Ebert.

He review the 1983 movie with Ben kingsley as Robert and wrote the following

"The performances are perfectly matched. Ben Kingsley (of "Gandhi") plays Robert, the publisher, with such painfully controlled fury that there are times when he actually is frightening."

And that's exactly what captivated me watching Daniel in this role.
Ben won The Evening standard British Film Award for his performance as Robert.
Have you seen the film? From what I've read it's depiction is quite different to this production.
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Dunda
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Post by Dunda »

I only watched a very small part of the movie (I will watch it now when I have time), so I can't say how much it differs....

But the description of Ben's acting fits Daniel's approach to a Tee
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Post by Germangirl »

I suppose, its easier to recognize on screen then in a theater, when you are not sitting close. Subtle is not theaters best friend..
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

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Post by Sylvia's girl »

From Talking Broadway - All That Chat - I thought some people may find the discussions on here interesting. I couldn't make my mind up whether to post it here or on the stage thread, so I decided on both. Wink

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/allthatch ... board_id=9
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Post by Alina »

Sylvia's girl wrote:From Talking Broadway - All That Chat - I thought some people may find the discussions on here interesting. I couldn't make my mind up whether to post it here or on the stage thread, so I decided on both. Wink

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/allthatch ... board_id=9
I liked this one by Jax:
1. People love to look at sexy people, especially James Bond.

2. The audience seems to love the show

3. Ben Brantley to the side, Mike Nichols still knows how to deliver a hit. Pinter, Shminter, it's a hit!
:)
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Post by Sylvia's girl »

Posts tagged ‘Daniel Craig Betrayal’
Bright Lights on Broadway


There are more high-flying celebs and poor reviews over at the Barrymore Theatre on 47th Street where a revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal stars husband-wife duo Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz. The New York Times savaged the production, calling it “crude and clunky” and even sniped at it while lavishing praise on the favored pair-up of Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. It would seem that the Betrayal camp has run afoul of Ben Brantley and his ilk because when I saw it with a friend the other night, our impression was that it is better than the reviews would have you believe.

Pros and cons of Betrayal: Pro: Daniel Craig, Daniel Craig, Daniel Craig. Whatever “it” is, he has it. He is not conventionally handsome, which is to his credit – he knows how to look like James Bond but don’t forget he was also Perry Smith in Infamous. He moves on the stage with a preternatural, panther-like grace.

Con: Less effective is the lovely Rachel Weisz. Some of that may be that she is not quite up to the task of commanding a Broadway stage. Some of it may be that she is overshadowed by Craig and the fine Rafe Spall (who you might remember from Life of Pi). And some of it might be the inherent arrogance and misogyny in Pinter’s play and psyche. Pinter got away with a lot on account of being a “genius”.
The sets for the play are inventive, effective and look terribly expensive. Lucky for the producers, even though the reviews are bad, the performance was sold out the night I was there. Bernadette Peters thought it was worth seeing; I stood next to her in the lobby before the show started. She is ageless and stunning!

http://polloplayer.wordpress.com/tag/da ... -betrayal/

I suppose if you were only to read a couple of bad reviews you might well be under the misapprehension that most reviews are similar.
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Post by Alina »

Sylvia's girl wrote: Pros and cons of Betrayal: Pro: Daniel Craig, Daniel Craig, Daniel Craig. Whatever “it” is, he has it. He is not conventionally handsome, which is to his credit – he knows how to look like James Bond but don’t forget he was also Perry Smith in Infamous. He moves on the stage with a preternatural, panther-like grace.

even though the reviews are bad,
http://polloplayer.wordpress.com/tag/da ... -betrayal/

I suppose if you were only to read a couple of bad reviews you might well be under the misapprehension that most reviews are similar.
Good to read words of praise about Daniel's performance, but I've read plenty of GOOD REVIEWS, so the author of this one must have missed them, intentionally perhaps :?:
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Post by Sylvia's girl »

Who knows? Some people I know only read film reviews from one or two high brow newspapers, and take them as gospel. Narrow minded, but there you go. :wink:
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Post by Alina »

Sylvia's girl wrote:Who knows? Some people I know only read film reviews from one or two high brow newspapers, and take them as gospel. Narrow minded, but there you go. :wink:
So screw them - excuse my "French"....
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Post by Sylvia's girl »

Alina wrote:
Sylvia's girl wrote:Who knows? Some people I know only read film reviews from one or two high brow newspapers, and take them as gospel. Narrow minded, but there you go. :wink:
So screw them - excuse my "French"....
:lol: :lol:
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Post by Germangirl »

He read the NYTimes, it seems and not much more. Still, we have to give him credit, that he was able to move above and see the light :wink:

Yes, he has IT - in spades.
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..

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Post by agrippina »

Finally here. I saw the play on Novermber 15, but haven't had too much time to concentrate on this before today.

I had not read the reviews much beforehand, had a fairly vague idea what it was all about and did not know what to expect. The last time I was in a theatre for a play was in the late 1980s - not my cup of tea at all.

I think I expected it to be deadly serious, but as has been said, it was quite funny at times. The structure was brilliant, added to the tension between the characters and certainly made a lasting impression! I might even go and see some other Pinter play after this! The sets were good, but I kept wondering what the scene with Robert and Jerry in an Italian restaurant was supposed to be - Venice?, Bay of Naples?

The guys were very good in their roles. Rafe Spall I have seen so little that I really did not know what to expect, but he was very good as this nervous kind of guy. I thought he was convincing. Robert and Emma are much more subdued characters despite the occasional outburst of anger, sadness or other emotions. Daniel knows how to do his job, there's no doubt about it...

Rachel was really the weakest link, she felt untrue and pretentious to me most of the time. This was really not a surprise, I guess, as I have not really liked her acting in movies very much.

I wish I would have had the time to see it a second time to get over the "OMG that is Daniel Craig really alive there onstage" feeling and had the mental capacity to appreaciate the whole theatre experience more.

All in all, I though it was quite good and well worth the $311 ticket :wink:

There was some additional excitement for that particular evening, though. I had received an email declaring an absolute no-late-admissions policy for the play. That struck me funny especially as at the previous evening's performance of "Kinky Boots" people seemed to come and go as they pleased. Well, I thought, maybe just a difference between theatres or some such thing. When I went to the Barrymore, I was wondering why there were a half a dozen policemen and two police cars in front of the theatre. I had not seen such things on the photographs at all...

Then when everyone else had entered, the vicepresident of the USA and his wife entered and they sat at the end of the same row where I was seated. There were quite a few security men standing along the back wall and I was not sure if I felt really safe or totally afraid of what could happen. Afterwards, the Bidens probably went backstage and whilst waiting I saw the motorcade in front of the theatre which basically filled the entire street. Seeing DC for the first time live and whole this shebang was almost too much for my psyche.
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Post by Dunda »

So you are back in FInland? I hope you enjoyed your time.
It was good to see you again :wink:
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