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Summary

Professor Shirley Kagan presented a paper on the Venetian imagery in Harold Pinter's play Betrayal. The playwright has spoken on numerous occasions about his early life and the profound manner in which he was affected by the twin terrors of anti-Semitism and the London Blitz. Perhaps it is from this early-life experience that Pinter derived one of his most famous theatrical effects, that of the elusive and pervasive sense of menace, that characterizes many of his works.

The fifth scene in Pinter's seminal play Betrayal is the only one located in Venice. The other eight scenes are set in a drearily depicted London. The contrast created by the Venetian setting coupled with the placement of the scene in the exact center of the play endows it with singular significance in the meticulously crafted work of a painstakingly detail-oriented playwright. Seemingly, sunny Venice represents the ultimate getaway to the play's drizzled-upon Londoners; and Venice's denizens, "these Italians . . . so free and easy" (Pinter, Betrayal) seemingly provide uncomplicated foils to the sophisticated urbanites the three principal characters imagine themselves to be. But in Pinter's world nothing is ever simple or as it seems and Venice turns out to be a place of painful revelations and the unraveling of relationships. The city intrudes, disturbs and menaces the characters out of their comfort zones and into danger zones.

In typical "Pinteresque" fashion the playwright describes the setting at the opening of the scene with only "Hotel room. Venice. 1973. Summer" leaving the poor wretch who undertakes directing this piece with the significant task of deciding how much and what to show an audience in order to realize "Venice." Every stage decision creates a new set of meanings to an audience. The interplay, which perforce exists between playwright and director, production and audience, creates a vastly complex set of readings. In the paper, Professor Kagan described the manner in which such a decision-making process is negotiated, starting with her own production choices in the 2000 staging at Hampden-Sydney College, and branching out to other productions and their depictions of Venice in the context of this work. The paper was an elaboration on one which Professor Kagan presented at the American Association of Italian Studies in May 2007.

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