Jill Halfpenny to star in Private Lives revival

Jill Halfpenny will return to the Royal Exchange Theatre to play Amanda Prynne in Noël Coward’s Private Lives.

The new staging is directed by Blanche McIntyre, who also returns to the Royal Exchange following her production of The Birthday Party in 2013. Coward’s play centres on a divorced couple who find themselves honeymooning next door to one another with their new partners, reopening old tensions and attractions.

Halfpenny’s stage credits include Legally Blonde, for which she won an Olivier Award, as well as Chicago, Abigail’s Party, Way Upstream, In a Word and A Taste of Honey.

Her screen work includes The Feud, Daddy Issues, After the Flood, The Long Shadow and Everything I Know About Love. She will also appear in the Paramount+ thriller Girl Taken, released this month.

The production runs from 27 March to 2 May 2026 and forms part of the theatre’s 50th anniversary programme, dubbed “A Homecoming”, which brings artists back to the venue to mark its history. It will be Coward’s 14th production at the Royal Exchange. Halfpenny last appeared at the Manchester theatre in A Taste of Honey in 2024.

The creative team includes designer Dick Bird, lighting designer Johanna Town, sound designer Gregory Clarke, fight director Philip d’Orleans and casting director Annelie Powell. Further casting is yet to be announced.