Private Lives Archives - North West End UK

17Oct

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Private Lives – Rose Theatre Kingston

What a life of ruse, where “Love and Chaos Collide” in Noel Coward’s Private Lives. It is evident that some knowledge of Noel Coward,his character as a playwright, composer and director, would stand you in good stead to appreciate this play. Coward was a distinguished actor flamboyant full of wit and charm using the English language like a tool to convey drama, comedy in a unique style that became his trademark. Private Lives a 1930 Coward’s comedy classic has seen many revivals in the past and this new production directed by Tanuja Amarasuriya has a sleek “modern connection” to the original. Written about the lives of a couple separated by divorce only to meet again on their honeymoon night with their new spouses. Their eyes meet on the hotel balcony, the chemistry reignites, and rekin...

Royal Exchange Announces 50th Anniversary Season

16Sep

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Royal Exchange Announces 50th Anniversary Season

Announcing her first season of work on the 49th birthday of the Theatre, Selina Cartmell, Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, welcomed Sir Tom Courtenay, after 24 years, back to the theatre to celebrate its iconic history alongside a brilliant group of other artists connected to the Exchange, to launch A HOMECOMING - a season that celebrates the theatres past and re-defines its future. A HOMECOMING, Selina Cartmell’s inaugural season for the Royal Exchange’s 50th Anniversary includes: •Selina Cartmell opens the season with ROAD by Jim Cartwright, starring Johnny Vegas, Lucy Beaumont and Shobna Gulati, with a special appearance on film by Sir Tom Courtenay, his 17th time performing at the Exchange since its opening in 1976. •PRIVATE LIVES by Noël Coward directed by Bla...

24May

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

North West

Private Lives – Cheadle Players

Amanda and Elyot have been divorced for five years. Now recently remarried… to other people… the play opens on the first night of their honeymoons as they discover that they have by chance booked adjacent rooms at the same hotel in the north of France. What follows is an excellent study into human nature, love and relationships, with a healthy dose of gender politics that still resonates now, despite having been written in 1930. It is very funny, which you would expect from writer Noel Coward. However, director David Burns has also managed to tease out moments of introspection, and almost vulnerability, which gave the exuberant characters a much greater depth of personality than I expected. The action was beautifully framed by the simple but elegant set, also designed by Burns, which...

16Apr

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Private Lives – Donmar Warehouse

Michael Longhurst's revival of Noel Coward's classic play downplays the lightness and wit of Coward's dialogue and emphasises the violence of the relationship between the two main characters. Elliott and Amanda. The plot is familiar: two honeymooning couples happen to occupy adjoining balconies in their seaside resort, and unfortunately one of the members of each of the couples used to be married to the other. When they discover this and overcome their initial shock and horror, they realise that their underlying love for each other is much stronger than they have for the nonentities whom they have recently married. The first scene takes place on the two balconies and the rest of the play takes place in a Paris apartment, to which Elliott and Amanda have escaped from their new spouses...

23Feb

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Private Lives – Lyceum Theatre

Private Lives is one of Noël Coward’s best-known and most-produced plays, and it is easy to see why. This two-hour production is absolutely full of snappy one-liners and delightfully stormy relationships. As the play opens, we meet Amanda and Elyot, who have been divorced for five years. Now recently remarried, we find them on the first night of their honeymoons as they discover that they have coincidentally booked adjacent rooms at the same hotel in the south of France... If you want to know what happens next, well, you’ll have to book tickets for the play! Originally starring Coward himself and Gertrude Lawrence, the leading parts are performed here by Nigel Havers, whose theatre company is also co-producing the tour, and Patricia Hodge, supported by Dugald Bruce-Lockhart as Victor...

16Feb

By Max EdenNo Comments

North West

Private Lives – The Lowry

When you put Patricia Hodge and Nigel Havers on a stage together, you already know it’s going to be a great show. Noel Coward’s Private Lives by the newly formed Nigel Havers Theatre Company does just that, and it’s everything you hoped it would be and more! Set in the 1930s, the play tells the story of Elyot (played by Havers) and Amanda (played by Hodge) who were once married and find themselves in adjoining rooms at a French hotel with their new partners, with the unexpected happening and the couple reconnecting. Havers takes on the role taken by Noël Coward himself in the original production in 1930 with a Suaveness we’ve come to expect, the character being delightfully charming but also quite stubborn and obstinate. Olivier Award winning actress Hodge is effortlessly glamorou...