Private Lives

Synopsis

A divorced couple are reunited whilst honeymooning with their second spouses. Moonlight on the Mediterranean - a beautiful young woman drifts onto a hotel balcony. A young man joins her. They embrace, drink in the scene. This is a dream of a honey moon come true. They part. The young man is alone. A band plays. On the next balcony another young woman appears. She sings a song. The young man gives a horrified gasp and freezes. He knows that tune only too well. And he knows that voice. He used to be married to it.

Our Review:

28 January 2009

Noel Coward and the Hampstead Theatre go back a long way – to 1962, when its first artistic director James Roose-Evans directed a production of Private Lives that put Coward back where he belonged in the spotlight and gave Hampstead its first West End transfer.

So Lucy Bailey’s deliciously edgy production is a fitting choice to start the theatre’s fiftieth birthday year. Bailey has boldly commissioned composer Errollyn Wallen to underscore the play with evocative music at once contemporary while recalling the jazz age, though happily Coward’s sublime “Some Day I’ll Find You” remains as Amanda and Elyot’s theme song – and a tribute to the potency of “cheap music” (Amanda’s words)!

This mixture of evoking the 1930s and finding contemporary resonances is true to Bailey’s production. There’s a vigour and energy about the performances and not j...

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Latest User Review

km - 23 February 2009:

Perhaps its an age thing, but I found it very difficult to connect to anything in this play which at times seemed incredibly self indulgent. I saw this as part of "A Night Less Ordinary" with a few friends, all under 26, and most of us agreed that for the last hour our minds had begun to wander! The two leads seemed very selfish, and the situation not at all funny! I wasnt sure whether this was the writing or the acting but either way it made for quite a disapointing evening. The only thing I did rate was the set, both for the opening balcony scene and the subsequent apartment scene (which seemed to last for hours!). Dont rush to see this, I got a free ticket and I was still disapointed! ...

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