Reading Order
Betrayal Reading Order
Betrayal (1978) by Harold Pinter is the most formally elegant of his plays — the seven-year affair between Emma (married to Robert) and Robert's best friend Jerry, told in nine scenes in reverse chronological order, beginning in 1977 (two years after the affair has ended) and working back to 1968 (the beginning of the affair). The reverse chronology is not a gimmick but a formal strategy: the audience knows, before Jerry knows, that Emma told Robert about the affair years before Jerry thought he knew; the audience watches Jerry reveal information that Robert has long had; and the dramatic irony that results from the reverse chronology is one of the most sophisticated uses of dramatic irony in twentieth-century theater. Pinter based the play on his affair with Joan Bakewell, which lasted from 1962 to 1969; Robert Kidd directed the original production at the National Theatre with Michael Gambon as Robert, Daniel Massey as Jerry, and Penelope Wilton as Emma.
Where to start
Betrayal (1978) — the complete text. Best Pinter reading order: The Birthday Party → The Caretaker → The Homecoming → Betrayal → Old Times → No Man's Land
Complete Betrayal Book List
- 1Buy
Betrayal
Harold Pinter·1978·Pinter's most formally elegant play — Emma, Robert, and Jerry, the seven-year affair, told in reverse chronological order. The original production at the National Theatre with Michael Gambon and Daniel Massey; the play that established Pinter's reputation with audiences who had found the earlier plays too difficult - 2Buy
The Homecoming
Harold Pinter·1965·The companion — Teddy, Ruth, Max, Sam, Lenny, Joey, and the play's disturbing power dynamics. Betrayal and The Homecoming are companion explorations of the relationship between sexual power and family/friendship loyalty: The Homecoming is organized around dominance and submission; Betrayal around the quieter violence of infidelity - 3Buy
The Birthday Party
Harold Pinter·1958·The earlier companion — Stanley, Goldberg, McCann, and the birthday party. Reading all three Pinter plays together shows the development of his formal and thematic preoccupations: from the external threat (The Birthday Party) to the domestic power struggle (The Homecoming) to the private infidelity (Betrayal) - 4Buy
Five Finger Exercise
Peter Shaffer·1958·Shaffer's companion in the tradition of the British play about the violence concealed in family relationships — the Harrington family and their German tutor Walter. Five Finger Exercise and Betrayal are companion British plays about the fragility of family and friendship arrangements, and what happens when an outsider (or an inside relationship conducted outside) reveals the arrangement's concealed violence - 5Buy
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy·1878·Tolstoy's companion in the literary tradition of the investigation of adultery and its costs — Anna Karenina, Vronsky, and Karenin. Betrayal and Anna Karenina are companion investigations of adultery in different formal registers: Tolstoy's is the expansive nineteenth-century novel; Pinter's is the compressed, reverse-chronological late-twentieth-century play. Both are organized around the impossibility of containing the consequences of the affair - 6Buy
The End of the Affair
Graham Greene·1951·Greene's companion in the literary tradition of the investigation of the private consequences of an affair — Maurice Bendrix's obsession with Sarah Miles after their affair ends. The End of the Affair and Betrayal are companion investigations of the emotional aftermath of an adultery: Greene's told in forward chronological order from the outside (Bendrix's perspective); Pinter's in reverse chronological order that makes the audience complicit in knowing more than the characters do - 7Buy
Old Times
Harold Pinter·1971·The companion Pinter play — Deeley and Kate and Kate's old friend Anna (who may or may not exist) and the battle over memory and possession. Old Times and Betrayal are companion late Pinter plays about the relationship between memory, possession, and the past: both are organized around competing memories of what happened and who owns the other person - 8Buy
The French Lieutenant's Woman
John Fowles·1969·Fowles's companion in the tradition of the British literary investigation of the relationship between the Victorian and the modern understanding of adultery and its consequences — Charles Smithson and Sarah Woodruff. The French Lieutenant's Woman and Betrayal are companion investigations of the same question from opposite formal positions: Fowles's plays the Victorian conventions against a modern awareness of what they meant; Pinter's strips the conventions away to show the bare dynamics of the relationship
Betrayal — Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Betrayal by Pinter told in reverse chronological order?
Pinter's use of reverse chronology in Betrayal is a formal decision with specific dramatic consequences, not a gimmick. The key consequence: the audience watches the beginning of the affair (the final scene, set in 1968) already knowing how it ends — not just that it ends, but all the details (the gradual deterioration, Robert's discovery, Emma's later relationship with Jerry's friend Casey, and the whole complex of guilt and evasion that followed the affair's beginning). But the most important specific consequence of the reverse chronology is the devastating Scene 4, set in 1974, in which Jerry and Robert are having lunch together shortly after Robert has discovered the affair: Pinter shows us Robert knowing (he discovered the affair a year before the scene is set) and Jerry not knowing that Robert knows, and the conversation that follows — in which Robert is kind to Jerry, protective of Jerry, even warm toward Jerry — is one of the most charged scenes in post-war British theater because the audience knows that Robert knows. Pinter used the reverse chronology to create a specific form of dramatic irony: the audience is always ahead of at least one character, and the experience of being ahead is the experience of watching people maintain false fronts that the audience knows are false.
Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.