Repertory
Philippines (REP) raises the curtain for its 87th season with the Manila premiere of Betrayal, a renowned play by British theater
icon and Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, running from March 1 to March 17 at the Carlos P. Romulo Theater in RCBC Plaza.
A recipient of The Olivier Award and New
York Drama Critics’ Circle Award,
Betrayal employs a reverse-chronological structure to tell the poignant
tale of an extramarital affair involving Emma, Robert, and Jerry, who is
Robert’s best friend. Inspired by Pinter’s own seven-year affair, the play is a
three-hander and takes place in London and Venice over a nine-year period.
Directed by critically acclaimed actor and
theater director Victor Lirio, Betrayal features a cast of London-based
Filipino actors James Bradwell, James Cooney, and Vanessa White who all boast extensive experience on stage and on
screen, and beyond.
New York and London-based Lirio has
directed several productions in New York and London. He was most recently
Resident Director on Dr Semmelweis in the West End starring Oscar winner Mark
Rylance at Harold Pinter Theatre in London. He was the former artistic director
of Diverse City Theater in New York.
Bradwell has performed at prestigious
venues in London such as Shakespeare’s Globe and The Royal Court Theatre, and
has played various TV roles including a part in Netflix’s Bridgerton. Cooney
has played lead roles in several productions at The Royal Shakespeare Company,
The Old Vic, and, most recently, The Almeida Theatre in London. Finally, White,
also a former member of English-Irish girl group The Saturdays, returns to her
theater roots having performed in the West End productions of The Lion King and
The King and I.
They will be joined by Manila-based actors
and Philstage Gawad Buhay awardees Regina
De Vera and Jef Flores. Betrayal will feature set design by Miguel Urbino, lighting design by John Batalla, sound design by Fabian Obispo, and costume design by Becky Bodurtha.
“I am thrilled to be directing my first
production in my home country and at Repertory Philippines,” Lirio says. “We
will be exploring Betrayal from the
second-generation Filipino immigrant experience in London and set it in the
contemporary time. Though born in England, actors James Cooney’s and Vanessa
White’s families are from Davao and James Bradwell’s from Naga City. My family
is from Batangas. And we will mine our Filipino roots to re-tell this beautiful
and complicated story.”
REP presents Betrayal as part of The Bridge Project, a collaboration among
global professional theater practitioners of Filipino descent from New York,
London, and Manila. Launched by Lirio in June 2020 in London and currently in
partnership with REP in Manila, this global undertaking serves as a skills
exchange platform. The Bridge Project will offer free Knowledge Sharing
Sessions that will touch on theater topics like Shakespeare text rhetoric, text
& scene study, script analysis for visual designers, voice and theater
experience, as well as a speaker series forum and some staged readings. The
classes will be held at MINT College, Mckinley Hill and Ortigas Campus.
Registration begins the first week of February. Interested parties may download
application forms at repertoryphilippines.ph and their social media channels.
“I sense a real commitment and passion from
REP for a global collaboration among Filipino artists,” adds Lirio. “I’m
grateful to REP President and CEO Mindy Perez-Rubio for supporting The Bridge
Project’s ethos and for having the London-based Filipino actors and me. We’re
all very excited to collaborate with fellow theater artists in Manila in
presenting one of Pinter’s most extraordinary plays.”
For show-buying and
ticket inquiries, contact REP at 0966-905-4013 or send us an email at marketing@repphil.org, sales@repphil.org or through this link: https://linktr.ee/repertoryphilippines Tickets are now available via Ticketworld.
For updates and
show schedules, visit www.repertoryphilippines.ph, or like and follow @repertoryphilippines on Facebook and Instagram.
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