Show Artwork by Michael Gelen, Inkwell Studios.

Show Information

View Irish Classical Theatre Company’s production of Betrayal, February 23, 2024 – March 17, 2024.

Run Time: Approximately 90 minutes. There will be no intermission.

Content Warning: Mature language and mentions of domestic violence.

Cast

Jerry Anthony Alcocer*
Emma Aleks Malejs*
Robert Steve Copps
Waiter John Profeta

*Member, Actors Equity Association

ICTC Creative Team

Director
Greg Natale

Production Stage Manager
Lauren Costello Yager

Assistant Stage Manager
Alexia R. Guzmán

Set Designer
Spencer Dick

Lighting Designer
Jayson Clark

Sound Designer
Tom Makar

Costume Designer
Vivian Del Bello

Hair & Make-Up Designer
Susan Drozd

Props Designer
Gianna Lopez

Intimacy Director
Jessica Hillman-McCord †

Dialect & Speech Coach
Megan Callahan

Assistant to the Director
John DellaContrada

† ICTC Debut 

Betrayal

By Harold Pinter

February 23, 2024 – March 17, 2024

Directed by ICTC Associate Director Greg Natale

Emma has been having an affair with her husband Robert’s close friend, Jerry, for seven years. Told in reverse-chronological order, Pinter’s semiautobiographical play explores relationships’ layered lies and all the complexities that come with them. ICTC Associate Director Greg Natale directs a powerhouse cast featuring Anthony Alcocer, Steve Copps, Aleks Malejs, and John Profeta

 

A Message from Artistic Director, Keelie A. Sheridan:

Though Betrayal by Harold Pinter was written over 40 years ago, it could have been written today. I think the power in this play, and the reason it’s so timeless, is the clarity that we see in retrospection, the intersection between trust and truth and the friction between memory and reality. We’re given the space to both empathize with and criticize each character, and that complexity is what makes this play feel so accessible and exciting.

Additional Programming:

Open Rehearsal (for Subscribers Only): Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024, at 6:30 pm

Pay-What-You-Will Performances*: Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024 at 3:00 pm & 7:30 pm; Saturday, March 2, 2024 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 7:30 pm. (*Purchase in-person at the Box Office on the day of the performance. Seating subject to availability.)

Industry Night: Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at 7:30 pm

Young Professionals Night: Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, at 7:30 pm

Speaker Series featuring Intimacy Director, Jessica Hillman-McCord: Sunday, March 3, 2024, at 1:30 pm

Community Matinee: Wednesday, March 13, 2024, at 10:00 am

Open Captioned Performance: Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 7:30pm

Open Captioned Performances: An LED captioning screen, located in the South East corner of the theatre displays the dialogue and any other audio portion of the production in text form in sync with the performance.

For questions about reserving seating in view of the captioning signage, please contact ICTC’s Box Office at 716-853-4282 (voice), or email BoxOffice@irishclassical.com. 

Promo photos by Eric Tronolone.

Director Note:

Betrayal takes place over an eight-year period of time, in a variety of locations, around London, except for one scene that occurs in Venice, Italy. Though the play was written in 1978, the universal and timeless nature of the subject matter effortlessly adapts to an ambiguously contemporary time period.  In that same vein, the scenery, lighting, costumes, and props are also minimalist in nature in order for them to be a part of every and any where. The trappings of the physical world are not what is important in the telling of this story.  It is also important for the audience to know that the play is set in reverse chronology, with the first scene of the play occurring eight years after the beginning of a long-term adulterous love affair which has its origins in the final scene of the play.  British playwright, Harold Pinter is recognized as one of the most influential dramatists of the modern theatre. Pinter’s use of reverse chronology was groundbreaking at the time, and is still a prevalent story telling device used in film, television, and stage to this day. Critic Roger Evert wrote, “It (reverse chronology) is the very heart and soul of this story. It means that we in the audience know more about the unhappy romantic fortunes of Jerry and Robert and Emma at every moment than they know about themselves. Even their joy is painful to see.”

In its declaration of Pinter’s winning the Nobel Prize in Literature 2005, it was written that Pinter, “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms.” To this sentiment, there are no innocents in Betrayal. Pinter, locks Robert and Emma, husband and wife, and Emma’s lover Jerry, her husband’s oldest and best friend, into a love triangle that leaves no one unscathed. The betrayals are more than just those between husband and wife, and best friends, they are non-stop and multilevel occurring not only between characters, but also within one’s self, to one’s own belief systems and integrity, even to unseen spouses, clients, and children.

The illusions, delusions, and denial that the characters are adrift in, which we, the audience, also experience in our own lives, creates the commonality and understanding we share with Pinter’s characters and story. This connection makes “Betrayal” such a deeply personal experience for audiences forty-five years after its writing.

 Greg Natale, Director

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