Private Lives

Autumn Play 2010

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from the director

Private Lives is my favourite of all Noel Coward’s comedies – it bubbles with invention and slips down as easily as vintage champagne. It was an immediate success when it was first produced in 1930 and its irreverent humour and charm has lost none of its appeal. The action concerns a divorced couple, Elyot and Amanda, who meet on their respective honeymoons to second spouses. They realise they are still in love and should never have divorced. They callously abandon their new spouses and run away together, but are soon caught up in the same violent arguments that destroyed their marriage. Expressed like this, the plot resembles a tragedy but Coward fashions from it a fast-paced comedy, moving from misfortune to full- blown absurdity before tragedy has time to take hold.

Over the years some of the most famous names in theatre have performed in Private Lives, including Coward himself, Olivier, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and most recently Kim Catterall – and it is with some trepidation that we endeavour to follow in such illustrious footsteps. But the play is not only about the sparring lovers – it also provides wonderful roles for their discarded spouses.

Coward’s firmly held belief was that the theatre existed to amuse – and I hope that our production, to celebrate his genius, achieved this!

Kath