Jonathan Fielding admits he was only a casual fan of Harold Pinter’s classic drama Betrayal when he took the role of Jerry, who’s having an affair with his best friend’s wife. But after 19 performances at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater last fall, he wasn’t ready to leave the complex study of memories and marriage behind. Neither was anyone else involved.
“We didn’t want to say goodbye to it,” says Fielding. “We all left the project feeling bummed that it was over — maybe this is the kind of thing that we’d like to move somewhere.”
That somewhere ended up being just two miles away, at Wellfleet’s Harbor Stage Company — which co-produced last year’s WHAT run and where Fielding, Brenda Withers (playing Emma, Jerry’s lover), and director Robert Kropf are co-founders. After considering a Boston production, the group decided to adjust Harbor Stage’s 12th-season plans to slot a revival of Betrayal as the opener, running through July 6.
The return of a production that Independent reviewer Howard Karren called “thrilling” and “unforgettable” — superior to both a 2000 Broadway revival he’d seen and the 1983 film adaptation — is a chance for those who missed it last time to catch the show. Or for those who were in the audience last fall to see it again in a new way.
“It’s such a beautiful text that I would guarantee they will find new things about the play and think about it differently when they walk away,” Fielding says.
What repeat viewers won’t see in this Betrayal is that spiral staircase. The staircase, notes actor William Zielinski, who plays husband Robert, was a key element of the set designed last year by Christopher Ostrom, WHAT’s producing artistic director. But the staircase wouldn’t begin to fit in Harbor Stage’s space at the 88-seat Kendrick Avenue theater.
“We’re paring the play down and remapping it in that intimate space,” says Zielinski. Robert is his fourth role with Harbor Stage in the past decade. “We’ve sort of modified the staircase to use different elements that also involve steps, and we’ll see how that works out.”
Harbor Stage works well for Pinter’s 1978 piece itself, the actors say, because Betrayal is already an intimate story. With a cast of just the three people affected by the affair, plus a waiter (Ari Lew), the script — based on Pinter’s own years-long affair — focuses on the effects of long-term infidelity in nine scenes. The story is told in reverse chronological order, moving from sour present to passionate past.
In daily rehearsals ahead of the remount, Kropf and cast have explored new ways to look at the characters and the dynamics between them while navigating less space to move around. A main platform had to be reduced in size by one-third, for example, and there’s different lighting.
Mostly, there’s the knowledge that the audience will be just a few feet away. Performing the play at the Harbor will be almost cinematic, Zielinski says, because the actors can dial down verbal exchanges with the audience so close by.
“Adapting it to the smaller space has to be more subtle,” Fielding says. “If I came into the Harbor and I used the same volume that I used at WHAT, I’d seem like a crazy overactor. What fit well at the WHAT looks strange at the Harbor.”
He describes the overall changes as “reconnecting the dots” while staying true to Kropf’s original directorial vision. Since October, Fielding has co-directed (with Withers) Harbor Stage’s revival of Northside Hollow at Boston Center for the Arts and performed at a Florida theater in Withers’s play Westminster — which will be performed at Harbor Stage in August. Shaking those productions off to return to Betrayal, he says, has been “a little like visiting an old friend and remembering what they’re about.”
Karren called Zielinski’s Robert “pitch perfect.” But after the WHAT run ended, the actor — who also once played Robert in a Philadelphia Betrayal production — felt that he still had more he’d like to try with his character. Zielinski is doing that now, nine months later, with the Harbor Stage actors and Kropf, a close friend and collaborator of 30 years. He considers it a gift.
“You’re able to pick it up and start fresh,” Zielinski says. “What’s delightful about coming back is you discover new things every time you run it. Something pops up that you hadn’t expected. I don’t think I would ever tire of doing this play.”
A Classic Returns
The event: Betrayal by Harold Pinter
The time: Through July 6, Thursday through Saturday at 7 p.m.; Sundays at 5 p.m.; additional shows Tuesday, July 2 and Wednesday, July 3 at 7 p.m.
The place: Harbor Stage Company, 15 Kendrick Ave., Wellfleet
The cost: $25, with a pay-what-you-can performance on Friday, June 21 at harborstage.org
