Paula Stockbridge plays Emma

Not many playwrights have given their name to a word. 'Pinteresque' generally means something tense and ambiguous....with ominous pauses.

The word was being used in 1960, just three years after Harold Pinter's first play was performed. He's now written more than 30 plays and 20 screenplays. They include The Caretaker (1959), The Homecoming (1964), The Birthday Party (1958) and the screenplay for The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981).

John Lloyd Fillingham plays Jerry

The Royal Theatre's in-house production of Betrayal coincides with a major retrospective of Pinter's work by BBC Four, the free digital TV channel.

Betrayal is about infidelity. A lingering glance, one drink too many, a flirtation at a party: it's all too easy to stray.

But this play does not start at the beginning of the affair. It starts at the end and works backwards through the years from the last indifferent reunion to the first passionate beginnings.

Pinter draws on his own affair with broadcaster Joan Bakewell.

The Royal production stars Paula Stockbridge as Emma, John Lloyd Fillingham as Jerry and John McAndrew as Robert. Tom Edden plays the waiter. It's directed by the Royal's Rupert Goold who's recently had a great success with Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

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