March 1 – 17, 2024
Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium (RCBC Theater)
RCBC Plaza, Makati City, Metro Manila
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Repertory Philippines 48th season shall open with the Manila premiere of BETRAYAL, one of the best-known plays of British theater icon and Nobel Prize winner in Literature Harold Pinter. It will feature London-based Filipino actors James Bradwell, James Cooney, and Vanessa White with Jef Flores and Regina De Vera as covers.
This production employs a reverse-chronological structure to tell the story and examine the consequences of an extramarital affair on three complex individuals and how clandestine meetings turn to dramatic confrontations.
A recipient of the Lawrence Olivier Award and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, the drama has featured prominent British actors like Michael Gambon, Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Tom Hiddleston.
This Manila staging of Betrayal holds many other firsts for REP. It is going to be the first Pinter play of the theater company. It marks the Philippine directorial debut of Victor Lirio, a Manila-born, New York and London based actor and theatre director, who trained at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and earned his Master of Arts in Drama Directing from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He was most recently Resident Director on Dr Semmelweis at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End starring Oscar winner Mark Rylance.
REP will also collaborate with Lirio on The Bridge Project, a “skills exchange” program for professional practitioners trained in different theater cultures to create a congress for collaborative learning.
The three Filipino-British actors, along with two New York-based Filipino-American designers and Lirio, are being flown in to Manila by REP in February not only to perform in Betrayal, but also to hold free masterclasses, lectures and readings, for Filipino theater practitioners and audiences.
Synopsis
The plot of Betrayal integrates different levels of betrayal relating to a seven-year affair involving a married couple, Emma and Robert, and Robert’s best friend Jerry, who is married to Judith. For five years Emma has an affair with Jerry, without her husband Robert’s knowledge. She is unfaithful to Robert and betrays Jerry’s wife, Judith. Emma, without telling her lover, Jerry, admits her infidelity to her husband, Robert (in effect, betraying Jerry), although she continues their affair. Four years after exposing the affair to her husband, and two years after she and Jerry break up, Emma meets Jerry to tell him that her marriage to Robert is over. She then lies to Jerry in telling him that she had to reveal the truth to Robert just the night before, and that he now knows of the affair. The truth however, is that Robert was told about the affair by Emma four years ago.
Pinter’s particular usage of reverse chronology in structuring the plot is innovative: the first two scenes take place after the affair has ended; the final scene of the play ends when the affair begins, seven years earlier; and, in between this seven year span, scenes in two pivotal years (today, and four years earlier) move forward chronologically. The Betrayal structure strips away all dishonesty and deception. In this view, the play shows, heartlessly, that the very capacity for love itself is sometimes based on betraying not only other loved ones, but even ourselves. Betrayal shows that complex emotions are based on stress from two timeframes, one forward in calendar time toward disappointment, and one backward toward the redemptive freedom of time.
The Cast
“I’m not blaming you. I’ve only myself to blame. I knew.”
Meet Emma, the enigmatic architect of passion, caught in the crossfire of love and betrayal.
The character will be played by Filipino-British theater actress, a student of the Sylvia Young Theatre School in West London and vocalist of the girl group The Saturdays, Vanessa White.
“You’ll have to choose. You can’t have both. We can’t go on as we are.”
Enter Robert, the stoic observer in the theater of deceit.
The character will be played by James Bradwell, a seasoned Filipino-British actor and an alumnus of the prestigious Bristol Old Vic.
“Nothing’s simple anymore. Nothing’s black and white.”
Introducing Jerry, the charismatic rogue navigating the delicate threads of friendship and forbidden love.
The character will be played by James Cooney, a Filipino-British actor from the Royal Shakespeare Company, and alumnus of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA).
Everyone, meet Regina de Vera.
An MFA graduate in Acting at The Juilliard School, Regina is a Gawad Buhay Award-winning actress for her work as Portia in a Filipino adaptation of The Merchant of Venice. She debuted in the US at The Old Globe, a Tony award-winning regional theatre in San Diego, CA, by playing the lead in The Underpants (2019) by Steve Martin.
Regina is a versatile artist, branching out into directing and coaching to facilitate her advocacy for empowering Filipino artists. She will step into the captivating role of Emma to add her flair to the character as our talented alternate.
Introducing Jef Flores!
Jef is a leading man in the Philippine Theater scene and a two-time Gawad Buhay Best Actor, fresh from his tour de force as Jon in Tick, Tick… BOOM!
He returns to straight plays as the cast cover for Jerry and Robert after appearing in such shows as 4000 Miles, The Normal Heart, This Is Our Youth, and In The Next Room: The Vibrator Play.
The Director
Victor Lirio, is a critically acclaimed Filipino actor and theatre director specializing in text-based, impact theatre. With a passion for directing works that tackle social issues, his work explores psychological realism, epic theatre, and post-dramatic expression of classical and contemporary text.
He trained in Stanislavski, Meisner, and classical text at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) as an actor. He earned a Master of Arts in Drama Directing from one of Britain’s most prestigious conservatoires, the Bristol Old Vic.
Victor was most recently Resident Director on Dr Semmelweis in London’s West End at the Harold Pinter Theatre starring Oscar, Tony, and Olivier Award winner, Mark Rylance.
He initiated The Bridge Project in 2020, a skills exchange initiative, to connect professional theatre practitioners in London, New York, and Manila.”
