Theatre News

Chichester’s Private Lives heads to West End, starring Toby Stephens & Anna Chancellor

The Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of Noel Coward‘s Private Lives will transfer to the Gielgud Theatre from 3 July 2013 (previews from 22 June).

Toby Stephens and Anna Chancellor will reprise their roles of Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne in the production, which was the final production staged during Chichester Festival Theatre’s 50th anniversary season.

Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne are glamorous, rich, reckless… and divorced. Five years later, their love for one another is unexpectedly rekindled when they take adjoining suites of a Riviera hotel while honeymooning with their new spouses. This chance encounter instantly reignites their passion, and they fling themselves headlong into a whirlwind of love and lust once more, without a thought for partners present or turbulences past.

The production is directed by Jonathan Kent, whose credits include, most recently, Sweeney Todd, and designed by Anthony Ward. Stephens and Chancellor are joined in the cast by Antony Calf and Anna-Louise Plowman.

Toby Stephens‘ theatre credits include Danton’s Death (National Theatre), The Real Thing (The Old Vic), A Doll’s House and Betrayal (both for Donmar Warehouse), A Streetcar Named Desire (West End) and Coriolanus (RSC) and his screen credits include Vexed, Jane Eyre and Die Another Day.

Anna Chancellor‘s stage credits include the CFT double bill of South Downs and The Browning Version, which also transferred to the West End, The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead Theatre), The Observer, Never So Good and Stanley (National Theatre and Broadway). Her screen credits include Pramface, The Hour and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Antony Calf plays Victor Prynne. His stage credits include The Deep Blue Sea and Wallenstein for CFT. Other credits include My Fair Lady (Sheffield Crucible) and the West End production of Death and the Maiden as well as The White Guard, The Power of Yes, Gethsemane, Never So Good, The False Servant and The Madness of George III (all for the National Theatre).

Anna-Louise Plowman plays Sibyl Chase. Her theatre credits include Three Tall Women (Oxford Playhouse), Five Women Wearing The Same Dress (Vital Theatre Co, NYC) Thirst ( Provincetown Playhouse, NYC), and Musical Scenes (Clod Ensemble).

250 top price tickets will be made available for Private Lives each week at £10 per ticket. 170 tickets per week will be released for general sale in May. The remaining tickets will be day seats, 10 per performance, released at the Gielgud Box Office from 10am on the day of the performance.

Private Lives will run until 21 September 2013.

Come on our WhatsOnStage Outing to Private Lives on 1 July and get your top-price ticket, poster and access to our exclusive Q&A with Anna Chancellor and Toby Stephens, all for £35. Click here to book.