Noel Coward’s 1930 comedy Private Lives is probably his best known and most popular play, a standby of repertory and amateur theatre. Part of this is the iconic plot, dealing with two glamorous divorcees, Amanda and Elyot, who accidentally re-encounter one another while on their honeymoons with their new partners. The precursor to so many subsequent romantic comedies that deal with a love/hate relationship, Coward’s play remains one of the very best because of the endlessly quotable dialogue (‘Very flat, Norfolk.’ ‘Some women should be struck regularly, like gongs’) and carefully constructed plotting that never allows the relationship between the protagonists to descend into farce.
Of course, if done badly, the play ends up as knockabout, silly buffoonery, and so it needs a really strong production to keep it compelling. Thankfully, Richard Eyre’s new staging is as clever and restrained as it needs to be. He’s helped immensely by strong lead performances by Matthew MacFadyen, unusually stern and forthright as Elyot, and Kim Cattrall, leaving Sex And The City’s Samantha behind to adopt a near-flawless upper-crust 30s accent and mannerisms as the charming, sexy but no less headstrong Amanda. There’s also excellent support from Simon Paisley Day as the very model of a repressed prig in Amanda’s new husband, Victor, a man so formal that he uses grand pianos to press his trousers, and Lisa Dillon as the twittery (in the proper sense of the word) new bride for Elyot, Sybil.
If this doesn’t quite rise to the heights of delirious hilarity that some Coward productions manage, there’s no doubt that this is a literate, consistently inventive and amusing revival of a great play that manages to say some compelling and relevant things about the perennial battle between the sexes in a timely and witty way. And it boasts the best on-stage use of brioche you’re likely to see this year.
Until 1st May. Vaudeville Theatre, The Strand, WC2. www.nimaxtheatres.com
