Theater News Online New York
"...it's capital casting here. It really isn't worth doing a Pinter if you aren't to have a star cast... it's a stellar lot you get for your money..."
Guardian
"...Superbly played by Samuel West, Robert initially seems a cold, calculating bastard viewing the fluctuations of adultery with sublime indifference. West gradually makes you see that the sardonic mask covers a broken heart...Toby Stephens invests the adulterous Jerry with a paradoxical innocence..."
London Theatre Guide
"...Toby Stephens is a laid-back, unruly-haired, beer-drinking Jerry, while Samuel West is a pretentious, old fashioned, whiskey-drinking Robert, and the interaction between the two provides much of the play’s funnier moments..."
Telegraph
"...Toby Stephens plays Jerry with puppyish charm but also brings a depth of pain and vulnerability one rarely encounters in Pinter...[Samuel West] brings a scary chill to the stage as the cuckolded Robert, rejoicing in the power of knowledge even as he suffers the humiliation of betrayal..."
Evening Standard
"...Toby Stephens and Sam West give sensational performances..."
whatsonstage
"...Stephens exudes all the raffish, boyish charm that is his trademark while adding new notes of frailty and aghast surprise at the unravelling. West is as dry as a biscuit, as clipped as a neat suburban hedge, but he breaks down mightily over lunch with Robert, glugging his wine with vengeful dedication..."
Independent
"...West brilliantly delivers Robert's lethally barbed banter but also gives you, in bouts of displaced fury, glimpses of a man crying out for help. Toby Stephens, who plays the weaker Jerry, brings out all the absurdity of the fact that he feels principally betrayed by Robert. But he also shows a person sensitive enough to be overcome by the nostalgic memory of a moment of unrecapturable happiness..."
theatre.com
"...the production deepens the minute West enters the stage, one's awareness of the bleakness lying behind his brisk, cool affect palpable throughout..."
Bloomberg
"...The outright revelation is West... Robert [Sam's character] has the least stage time of the trio, but West's gathering cool hovers throughout...
Daily Mail
"...in Messrs Stephens and West we have two greats for our future."
British Theatre Guide
"...Much of the joy of Betrayal is the audience's far greater knowledge than the protagonists of their predicaments but there are still enough surprises to keep viewers on their toes. The play also takes its audience into the hearts and heads of three people, with at least one of whom they may well identify..."
Observer
"...it [Betrayal] has in Samuel West the best actor of Pinter of his generation..."
The Stage
"...Toby Stephens as Jerry and Samuel West as Robert spark off each other with a great feel for their humorous, sometimes mannered exchanges..."
Theatre Guide London
"...West plays a man who might very well become violent with rage. But he also shows us the pain of the man, and the great cost not giving way to violence takes on him..."
New Statesman
"...West, as the knowing cuckold, manages somehow to indicate seething fury and despair that only occasionally explodes from his clubbable exterior, while Stephens, as the lover, brings a leonine carnality to the drama..."
Hampstead and Highgate Express
"...he [Roger Michell, the director] has atuned his cast to portraying the thought behind the simplest gesture...In this respect, Samuel West is a genius...Toby Stephens' Jerry is perfectly cast, boasting just the right level of rugged innocence..."
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1 comment:
Hi Jellybean,
I've put a link to your review roundup on my blog, hope you don't mind!
Kind regards,
Penny.
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