"Private Lives" by Noel Coward
Nottingham Theatre Royal.
This is only the second time that I've seen this Noel Coward play; the first being quite a few years ago at the Nottingham Playhouse.
This production stars Patricia Hodge as Amanda and Nigel Havers, whose production company is behind the play, as Elyot.
Nigel Havers is perfectly cast as he looks as if he could have been born to an era harking back to Noel Coward with his smooth and sophisticated gentlemanly style. From the way he wears the immaculate dinner suit and holds his glass, to his vocal delivery of Coward's witty script, he fits the era and play with perfection and ease. That is until his superbly preened feathers are ruffled by the appearance of Amanda!
Elyot and Amanda, who were once married, find themselves in adjoining rooms in the same hotel on the French coast, both on honeymoon with their new partners, Sibyl (Natalie Walter) and Victor (Dugald Bruce-Lockhart), respectively. Elyot and Amanda's initial horror quickly evaporates and soon they’re sharing cocktails and a romantic serenade. Deciding they still love each other they both elope to Paris, leaving their new spouses at the honeymoon hotel.
Their marriage had not been a success, a diet of arguments brought about the divorce, but it seems that their current partners, have not enflamed the passion that once both ignited in each other. It is that passion that this play is all about.
We discover that very little has changed with Amanda and Elyot and the back-and-forth banter between the two is still as meaningly hurtful, but all very typical of a Noel Coward script. Amanda and Elyot also inflict quite a bit of violence on each other! To counter this there's also a very comical scene surrounding a romantic interlude on the sofa with Elyot limping off with arthritis and Amanda complaining of indigestion, as they had only recently eaten.
Then we really meet the new partners, Victor and Sibyl, who turn up at Amanda's private flat in Paris looking for the pair, and more than match Amanda and Elyot in the argumentative stakes. It's nice to watch Amanda and Elyot take an onlooker's seat, viewing the spectacle of Victor and the fireball Sibyl's meltdown scene which closes the play.
Aïcha Kossoko as Louise, the French Maid, who was formidable; I even understood most of what she said as all of her script was in French!
The set is gorgeously classy, which is what you'd expect for a play set by Sir Noel Coward. In Act One we see the exterior of a high-class French hotel, complete with patio doors and balconies, you can see why that Compare The Market Meerkat ad received its' inspiration from!
We then see the interior of the apartment with its' lavish decor and decadence in Act Two. This, for me has to be one of the best and sumptuous set designs I've seen. I'd be very happy to reside in this particular flat, with its' rich red walls, piano, floor to very high ceiling drapery and enormous double entrance doors.
Coward was always one for witty repartee, and this play, written in 1930, just shows how great comedy can transcend the decades, and still be funny nearly a hundred years down the line. We still find stereotyping of what is expected from males and females comedic, especially when Amanda calls Elyot out for his hypocrisy regarding his adulterous behaviour, and he retorts that he can, "because I am a man".
The chemistry between the four main actors is wonderfully believable and the delivery of the lines, as well as the script is of that certain time. We would not speak in such a way nowadays, and that is what makes the script, and story, so much fun to receive.
A wonderful farce that should be taken as entertainment and not too seriously, but a wonderful evening of classy acting with a sharp and wonderfully witty script, as well as a guideline to meter how far we have come - or maybe not come - both comedically and stereotypically in the last century.
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