Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Cox, and Zawe Ashton all make their Broadway debuts with the revival of Harold Pinter’s sexy drama Betrayal—though the trio are no strangers to the stage.
The three starred in the 2019 West End production that now transfers to Broadway’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, beginning previews August 14. The play follows Robert (Hiddleston), Emma (Ashton), and Jerry (Cox); Robert and Jerry are best friends, Emma and Robert are married, Emma and Jerry are having an affair. But this isn’t just a simple tale of marital infidelity.
“The play is about three relationships,” says Hiddleston in the video above. “It’s about a marriage, a friendship, and an affair, and actually, it’s the triangle of those relationships that the betrayals exist.” In the Jamie Lloyd-directed revival, none of the actors ever leave the stage, which Cox jokes is why he is careful about his liquid consumption before he takes the stage.
Hiddleston studied at RADA in the U.K. before becoming best-known for his portrayal of Loki in The Avengers series, while Cox attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School before becoming Netflix’s Daredevil. Ashton began her career as a child actor and later trained at the Anna Scher Theatre. British-born all, the actors earned raves in London and are thrilled to make it to Broadway for their 17-week engagement.
READ: 9 Theatre Roles You Probably Didn’t Know Tom Hiddleston Played
“When I started in the theatre, I started in a company Cheek by Jowl and we toured for two years,” Hiddleston explains. “We were in Paris and Madrid and Milan and Frankfurt and London, and what I found was actually there are things that differentiate between a French audience and a Spanish audience and a New York audience, but, actually, the great thrill is when you realize there’s things about being human that everybody recognizes. I hope that the Broadway audience can connect to the profound human aspects that we’re trying to present.”
