11:24am Saturday 30th January 2010
CAN a divorced couple fall in love with each other again? Perhaps. But while honeymooning with their new partners? An incendiary situation!
Written and first produced in 1930, Noel Coward’s classic play Private Lives explores two wealthy couples on honeymoon in adjoining rooms at a glamorous Deauville hotel on the French coast.
The contrived coincidence is that two of them have been previously married to each other, leading to explosive revelations and some delicious dramatic irony.
Set in a period when the rich and the aristocratic pursued lives of pointless pleasure while the masses endured economic crisis and unemployment (no change there then!), the dialogue is sprinkled with “Beastly!”, “Cad!”, “Pompous ass!” and other archaic insults.
Ostensibly frivolous and frothy, with Coward’s trademark effervescent dialogue flurries, this comedy is actually a study of a double marriage breakdown on honeymoon, with two innocent victims, adultery and domestic violence.
The acting is flawless, Simon Harrison superb as the tightly furious new husband, and Nicholas Boulton compelling as the hedonistic Elyot, nonchalantly piano-playing and crooning through the marital mess.
Sophie Roberts as distraught Sibyl and Susie Trayling as ruthless Amanda contrast eloquently.
The stylish set, the languid atmosphere and the cartoonish slapstick of the violence gloss over the pain and distress of the disintegrating personal situations.
This lively and vivacious play is both an entertaining period piece and a contemporary comment on people’s morals, values and compromises.
● Runs at Salisbury Playhouse until February 20.
Brendan McCusker
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/trade_directory/