"Private Lives" by Noel Coward.

Nottingham Lace Market Theatre.

Elyot ( Luke Willis ) and Amanda ( Kathryn Edwards), 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 ( Alex Milligan ) and Victor ( Jack Leo ), 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.

Louise, the French Maid, is played magnifiquelly by Sally Eaton. 

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.

Directed by Colin Treliving, who also was Set Designer, and as you can see by the pictures by Grace Eden, the set is gloriously sophisticated and in keeping with the era of the play.

Lighting Design is by Simon Carter and Sound Design by Philip Hogarth; both superb in their fields of expertise, as shown throughout the play.

Stage Managed by Jae Marriott with Props Manager being James Whitby.

Needless to say, the threads adorning the actors are of the finest and classiest quality.

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.

"Private Lives" is playing at the Nottingham Lace Market Theatre until Saturday 3 May, but you may find it tres dificile to ascertain tickets, so get your name down on the reserve list for this spiffing piece of theatre.