Thanks to A!
Contains spoilers
http://dc-sketchbook.blogspot.de/2013/1 ... rayal.html
This weekend I saw the Broadway play Betrayal starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz; it still lingers with me.
The play officially opens October 21 but has sold out and is now the hottest ticket on Broadway.
Thankfully, the play lives up to the hype.
Unlike many productions which feature movie stars, Betrayal crackles with extraordinary performances that live up to the Broadway cache.
No question, numerous Tony's are in store for this production.
The play has four actors: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Rafe Spall and Stephen DeRosa (who has a very small but amusing role as a waiter).
Spall carries a tremendous load as he is the main protagonist and delivers the most action and lines as both the best friend of Daniel Craig's character and as the lover of Craig's wife.
Thankfully, Spall is a powerhouse able to deliver drama and humor with conviction and presence.
To see Craig and Weisz on stage not only validates them as actors worthy of the title "Actor" (beyond celebrity) but also validates the existence of Broadway which too often delivers big names with big flops.
Betrayal is why theater exists, to see riveting performances such as these.
The play itself is fascinating in its construction as theater.
This is a play which unreels characters like an onion; slowly and to stinging effect.
When the last scene came (to a rousing standing ovation) I thought for a moment: "Wait, that's it?"
And then like a sledge hammer I was hit with the reality of all the nuances throughout each scene which culminated in the last dramatic moment.
(It is a nine scene play in reverse chronological order with no intermissions, starting in 1977 and ending in 1968).
The theme, of course, is betrayal and in the opening scene one quickly learns that Weisz's and Spall's characters have been carrying on a seven year affair.
But, is the betrayal of Weisz to her husband (Craig) and by Spall to his best friend (Craig?) the only betrayal at work?
Of course not, but it's not so obvious.
At the end of the play (spoiler alert!) it finally becomes clear that Craig's and Spall's characters were lovers long before the affair between Spall and Weisz.
Thus, the first "ah ha" moment: the real betrayal was by Spall's character to Craig's.
But, I believe there is a deeper revelation in the play - and this is why the play lingers - namely, that people often betray themselves.
I found myself thinking about my own relatively recent relationship; I was deeply in love with a woman named Leslie, and she told me she shared the feelings.
But, she made it clear that I would never come before her "friendship" with Alice.
While Leslie assured me that Alice wasn't gay (after I found they slept together) events made me constantly believe that Leslie and Alice were deeply in love.
I also felt that Leslie was always angry with me, giving me passive-aggressive silent treatments and vicious looks, for instance, when I tried to express my feelings.
Ultimately, I felt that I was walking on eggshells around Leslie and that's how our relationship ended, my last memory of her giving me a look of searing hatred in response to my having opened my heart to her.
I now believe that Leslie's anger derived from unresolved pain from suppressing her identity: to avoid confronting her identity, she directed aggression towards me.
I genuinely and deeply loved her, and wish I could have been there to support her, but I guess she had to work it all out through her own path.
Because, I understand through the grapevine that she and Alice are now more open about their identities.
But, if I did have the chance to talk with Leslie I'd tell her that I'm her ally and always have been.
I'm sad that she betrayed me, but it breaks my heart that she felt she had to betray herself for so long.
And herein lies the power of the Broadway play Betrayal with Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz: it sparks reflection and self-knowledge with the possibility of personal change.
And it is a damn entertaining performance.
See it!