Repertory Philippines opens its 87th season with the Manila premiere of Betrayal, one of the best-known plays by British theater icon and Nobel Prize winner in Literature Harold Pinter.
Betrayal will feature London-based Filipino actors James Bradwell, James Cooney, and Vanessa White with Jef Flores and Regina De Vera as covers. Running from March 1 to 17, 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 Laurence 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.
Related posts:
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.
REP’s 87th Season will also include “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”, “Jepoy and the Magic Circle”, and “Going Home to Christmas” featuring the music of Jose Mari Chan.
Click here for more stories like this. You may also follow and subscribe to our social media accounts: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Kumu.
