Private Lives

Sadly I have to admit I have never seen Private Lives until now and boy was I missing a classic piece of literature, it is extremely funny and although written some 90 years ago it is still very relevant to today’s humour.

The story is about a couple, Elyot and Amanda who married and divorced but who have since married other partners and have decided to spend their honeymoons in the same hotel, not only that but they are actually next door to each other!

As the story starts Elyot and his new wife Sibyl played by Matthew Medlock and Hope Baxter are settling into their hotel room and preparing to dress for dinner in the hotel’s casino. Both Matthew and Hope were able to get the most out of their respective characters much to the delight of the audience.

As Elyot and Sibyl decide to go into their room from the balcony their neighbours enter from their room onto their balcony, Victor and Amanda, or Mandy played by Sam Oliver and Rose Paxman were also able to demonstrate their acting abilities to portray the second honeymooning couple.

After chatting about her previous husband, Elyot, Amanda and Victor move back into their room to get changed, at this point Elyot enters back on his balcony where he has a cigarette and a drink before Amanda comes back onto her balcony and this is where the humour starts and the audience are on the edge of their seats awaiting what ensues, the action moving a little like a Brian Rix Farce.

Amanda is the first to notice her neighbour and the fact that it is her ex-husband, initially she tries to hide from him but then changes her mind and they start chatting about their marriage and what went wrong.

Elyot decides the best thing is for them to move out of the hotel and go to Paris to continue their honeymoon, however Victor and Amanda also decide this is the best course of action to take.

With much hilarity both couples start arguing with not only their respective spouses but also with each other and Elyot and Amanda decide to rekindle their relationship.

In act two and three the action moves into the apartment of Amanda to where she and Elyot have moved, here we see them both arguing and making love until they are joined by their current partners who have been searching for them. Here we see again all four arguing with each other until Elyot and Amanda decide to sneak out with their suitcases leaving Victor and Sibyl arguing.

The lines were all delivered at a cracking pace, however not one was lost and everyone in the audience was able to pick up everything as the action moved along which just proved the amount of work which had been done to get the final result.

I mentioned above this play is about two couples, however there is also another character in the guise of Louis, the French servant played by Jake Fraser who had to deliver all his lines in French, now I’m not an expert on the French language but I think Jake was near perfect in his delivery.

Massive congratulations must go to not only the cast who were all excellent but also the creative team of Alison Glentworth, Director, and Assistant Directors Annie Herbert, and Alex Glentworth who created this masterpiece. 

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