Noel Coward’s Private Lives

Published by: TREMAYNE Miller on 7th Mar 2010 | View all blogs by TREMAYNE Miller

Noel Coward’s Private Lives PRESS NIGHT

at the Vaudeville Theatre on Tuesday 03 March 2010

Directed by Richard Eyre, starring Kim Cattrall (Amanda), and Matthew Macfadyen (Elyot). Produced by Duncan C Weldon & Sonia Friedman Productions.

Published by: Tremayne

"I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives. It all depends on a combination of circumstances. If all the various cosmic thingummys fuse at the same moment, and the right spark is struck, there's no knowing what one mightn't do."
Noel Coward

The play follows divorced couple, Elyot and Amanda, who, five years after their divorce, not only wind up marrying at precisely the same moment in time but also book the exact same hotel to spend their honeymoon in. And if that were not coincidental enough, their suites are next to one another. The contrived situation they find themselves in allows for that Coward structure of wit and deft comedic stagecraft to come out.

“There’s something behind all this”, comments Victor just before he discovers that his newly wed wife, Amanda, has spotted her ex-husband, Elyot, at the same resort as them. The setting is the terrace of an elegant hotel on French Riviera. Although not written into the script, actor Matthew Macfadyen struggles to find his way through the net curtains and onto the balcony, which only adds to the tense atmosphere that has escalated between him and his new bride, Sybil. With each couple’s ‘first disagreement’,Victor stiffly walks off to the bar, as does Sibyl. On their own, Elyot and Amanda,face one another. Amanda asks Elyot for a much needed cigarette. Kim Cattrall (Amanda), fresh faced and elegant as ever, hitches up her Oscar-style cocktail dress to step over onto his side of the balcony. Elyot and Amanda though angry, give the air of being profoundly happy with their new spouses, whilst secretly having already reached a level of boredom.

“You said that Norfolk was flat”, says Elyot who picks Amanda up on her language. She bites back with “Well, that’s no reflection on her (Sybil), unless she made it flatter!, clearly not giving her consent to the new marriage. Music is playing conjuring up fond memories for them both and suggesting that this may have been “their special song”. Amanda, reminiscences over times gone by but is restraining old feelings, as she speaks of what their love led them to: "selfishness, cruelty, hatred, possessiveness, petty jealousy." “Darling, I love you so” says Elyot. Amanda, talking right over the top of him, pretends not to have heard these words. He continues “There isn’t a particle that I don’t know (of you)”, as she succumbs to his every want. They decide to run away together to Paris, regardless of the effect it will have on their reputations, freeing themselves from the ‘outside world’. But, it is only a matter of time before the uncontrollable arguments (‘private lives’) from their marriage past rear their ugly heads.The tour de force and impeccable comic timings of Matthew Macfadyen and Kim Cattrall make this a contagiously funny play to watch.