How do you follow casting like Tom Hiddleston in your central role? Add in bucketloads’ more worth of stardust in the form of Fresh Meat and Not Safe For Work’s Zawe Ashton, and Daredevil actor Charlie Cox, of course, who both will join Hiddleston in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Betrayal this spring.
The climax of the Pinter at the Pinter season, Betrayal is Harold Pinter’s account of a seven-year romance, told in reverse chronological order. By turns poetic, humorous and devastating, the show surrounds the complexities of the human heart.
Ashton will play Emma in Betrayal, reuniting her with Lloyd for the fist time since starring in Jean Genet’s The Maids at Trafalgar Studios. Cox, meanwhile, will play Jerry; Cox was previously directed by Lloyd in 2008 in The Lover & The Collection, at the then Comedy (now Harold Pinter) Theatre.
Tom Hiddleston will also star in Betrayal (Photo: Charlie Gray)
Ashton said of her casting, “I’m so thrilled to be part of the journey into the heart of one of Harold Pinter’s most personal pieces of work”, while Cox added “It feels particularly fitting and special to be working with Jamie on another Pinter play, as our production of The Lover & The Collection in 2008 was amongst the last projects that Harold himself was personally involved with.”
Amongst previous credits, Ashton starred in the six-part BBC/Netflix co-production Wanderlust, while Cox acted opposite Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in The Theory Of Everything.
Betrayal also marks Hiddleston’s first performance on the London stage since starring in Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet.
Performances begin 5 March for a strictly limited season until 1 June.