Effectively Rounding Out Harold Pinter and His Pauses

SAN DIEGO--Directing a Harold Pinter play in the round is a tough assignment. Karen Carpenter, recently named associate artistic director for the Globe Theatres, shows her mettle with just such a challenge in the Globe season opener. Her staging of “Betrayal” in the intimate Cassius Carter manages to keep matters engrossing while preserving the famous Pinter pauses.

It helps that the script is one of Pinter’s best, the time-shuffling deconstruction of a love triangle comprising a wife, her husband and his longtime best buddy. Still, the Pinter-esque pitfalls are many. An in-the-round axiom calls for keeping the cast in motion so no actor has his or her back to any segment of the audience for too long. Yet Pinter has his characters carry on repetitive, sometimes mundane conversations punctuated with long silences during which they do nothing but look at--or away from--one another.

Carpenter has struck a generally effective balance. Except for a couple of first-act scenes in which the hesitations last about two beats too long, the nonverbal moments add tension or vivify the awkward instances when nothing seems right to say. And when the script places a character in a chair or bed, Carpenter goes with it, not devising any artificial movements.

All this, of course, could lead to tedium with a less-involving plot or a less-capable cast. But Pinter’s end-to-beginning story remains fascinating in its reverse revelations, and Pamela J. Gray, Christopher Randolph and Daniel Freedom Stewart deftly modulate their personifications Dimiter D. Marinov, in a one-scene showcase, does a nice turn as an Italian waiter with attitude.

Scenic designers often say that you should be able to look at a set and understand the play, and Robin Sanford Roberts’ set succeeds admirably. At the beginning, a giant wooden cube rests in the center of a hardwood floor. Then the cast comes out and proceeds to disassemble it like a puzzle, with each piece becoming a geometric piece of furniture. It perfectly illustrates what’s to come, the systematic dismantling of all the relationships.

Aaron M. Copp’s lighting ranges judiciously from subdued to spotlighting and projects the time and location to introduce each scene. The projections help in following the nonlinear action. Sound designer Paul Peterson provides appropriate background noises and between-scenes music heavy on melancholy strings, and Charlotte Devaux-Shields dresses the central trio in mostly conservative versions of the styles of the ‘70s.

This production comes at a propitious time. With the recent news from London that the 71-year-old Pinter is battling esophageal cancer, it’s a chance to savor his greatness and offer a hope that his work is not yet done.

“Betrayal,” Cassius Carter Centre Stage, Balboa Park, San Diego, Tuesdays through Fridays, 8 p.m., Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends March 10. $35-40. (619) 239-2255. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.