PRIVATE LIVES - AT THE ARTS THEATRE
There are some plays best seen with a glass of bubbly and a tub full of warm deliciously perfumed suds. Noel Coward’s ‘Private Lives’ fits that bill exactly though the location was the drier auditorium of the Cambridge Arts. Some may see the 1930 play as dated – all that gender sparring, but the Master’s finely crafted comedy has, like the Bard’s Beatrice and Benedick ‘Much Ado’, a timeless quality. All hangs, of course, on the quality of the actors and here we were in the best of hands. With Patricia Hodge as Amanda and Nigel Havers portraying the lovable bounder Elyot, it was hard to image a better pairing (given that the originals, Coward himself and Gertie Lawrence, are no longer available).
Havers (whose production company presented this touring show) superbly fits the role of the newly wed chap still holding a whole candelabra of candles for his ex wife Amanda. Hodge too was tremendous as the sharp-witted Mandy, easily a verbal match for her former husband’s irascible outbursts.
Coward’s well-worn lines (‘Very flat, Norfolk’) were given a thorough wash and brush up by the legendary pair. Havers and Hodge fizzed with sexual energy and carried off the root of the play – two former lovers who can neither live with nor without each other.
Supporting the much-loved stars (the full house couldn’t resist applauding and cheering the stylish celebs) were Natalie Walter as young jilted bride Sibyl and Dugald Bruce-Lockhart as the stodgy Victor- briefly the husband of the older Amanda. Both gave wonderful ballast to the storm-tossed older couple’s ship of fools.
The first act set on the neighbouring balconies of a posh hotel in Deauville looked suitably grand. Sibyl and Elyot are on honeymoon – as bad luck would have it, his former wife is in the next room with her new spouse the stolid Victor. A chance meeting on the balcony is inevitable as is the realisation that the older couple have made a terrible mistake – all that romantic moonlight and the ‘potency of cheap music’ persuades them that their old love lives on.
Acts Two and Three changes the set to a wonderfully Art Deco Parisian flat. Amanda and Elyot have abandoned their honeymoon partners to begin life afresh. But will old ways prevail? There are top quality rows and blows are exchanged. The fury becomes uncomfortable, Cowardly wit gives way to visceral anger. Enter in Act Three our two abandoned newly weds and sparks don’t just fly, they rocket into orbit. The sparring become a mauling .
Havers and Hodge are actors of the old school – they eloquently act between the lines. Beneath the frothy patina of Coward’s juicy lines, there lies a darker, even, yes, profound essay on the nature of love. It is not always the sweetest thing. The two troupers fully understand that and brought depth to Coward’s bubbly confection. And talking of bubbles run that warm bath and chill the champers.
Cambridge Arts Theatre, Monday 22 November to Saturday 27 November
