ZZZZZZAGREEZZZZZZZ. Another revival of BETRAYAL, a minor Pinter play, is really excess to needs. But of course these arent commercial producers - this is a LORT theatre in a Broadway house using donated money to do whatever they want. They don't have to recoup. They are funded. Having recently seen Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Rafe Spall, directed by Mike Nichols .... what in heck is the purpose of this revival? Was there such a clamor for BETRAYAL that everyone wants to produce ut again? No. This is the Pinter play about successful, (rather horrid) white people, behaving badly. With the gimmick of moving backwards.
When rehearsing this play once, just for fun, we did one rehearsal playing the scenes in chronological order. One finds oneself in the middle of one of the worst plays ever written.
That aside - there are 1000's of plays that could be revived. But a combination of star actors and agents who don't ever read plays, and theatres that just want to toss a star against a wall - what the heck.
We saw BETRAYAL 5 years ago.
The last production of THE HOMECOMING (a better play) on Bway was 2007
The last production of THE CARETAKER (a better play) was 2003
The last production of THE BIRTHDAY PARTY (a better play) was in 1961-2
But what the heck. Three actors. Modern dress. Relatively simple set. 90 minutes in and out. Lets just do it every 5 years. |
