It’s official, I hate Harold Pinter! I hate him for writing such a depressing play. I hate him for being such a great writer. Never, have I been so “in” a play. I have been in the world of plays where I cheer and cry with the characters. But in this one, I totally assumed the position of Emma and I started to get angry at other’s responses! Never, have I written notes on the page like “WTF! Why is he talking about Robert!” “Not this again!”
Emotional Death, sad the first time I read it, and pure anger the second time… Oh, let’s roll back to 1968, your bright eyes…
UHHHHH!
Funny how I couldn’t get angry at “dozen lemons” in the “Breakup” but get so furious at this….
Betrayal by Harold Pinter
So..I did the scene and noticed myself that I got angry pretty soon and couldn’t get out of it! After the scene, I was still shaking and angry…”in the moment” well, doesn’t help when you are in the “same” moment! Andrew would say “You are not doing anything to change the state of being” Robert said “if you only have resentment, if you have no love for him, you have nowhere to go”, he’s absolutely right. For the scene, it doesn’t work. “You need love, then his torture will really hurt” The problem is I see his torture without seeing his love therefore I get furious. “You are trembling. Are you cold” — come on. UHHH!
Does she still love him? Yes. Regret? Yes. But after so many years of hiding and emotional torment, I feel it’s a relief for her. But he is still so damn calm and cynical, I can still only get angry…Even if he said “I hate you. Why did you do this” it would make me feel regret and that I hurt him and then the love would surface…but he just sits there talking … I guess the only way to do this scene is hide the affair as long as I can at the beginning, smoothe it over…until the confirmation
Now love. What kind of love is there? Emma barely talks when Robert is around. Robert is the hardest one to figure out in this play. I can see Emma wants out sometimes, but Jerry doesn’t pick up the que and she probably has her own reasons to stay. And yes, if you put the facts together, such as having 2 kids together, married for 10+ years, successful and wealthy publisher, she should love him. I just wish there was something from her that tells me, her words, her personal feeling….Did I miss it?