Private Lives at Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester Review
Written by Siobhan for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Tickets were gifted in return for an honest review. All views are our own
Noël Coward's Private Lives takes to the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester this spring season to delight and indulge its audiences into the wonderful world of wit that Coward is known for. With Jill Halfpenny returning to the Exchange to play Amanda Prynne and Steve John Shepherd as Eliot Chase - we are given a strong duo that can be trusted on stage to deliver this passionate, flamboyant and glamorous comedy with full steamy commitment.
Written by Coward in 1930, this three act play follows a divorced couple honeymooning with their new beaus - in the same location as their old flame and their new spouse. With a play that holds a golden reputation for being well done many a time, we look to this version directed by Blanche McIntyre with anticipation of the new. However, McIntyre keeps it classic and the simplicity of focusing on the words and leaning into the stereotypes of characterisation really solidifies this version as true to context and true to character.
With a fantastically chaotic story about lust and love, we need smart casting choices where chemistry becomes the main character, and we are given an oozing smoothness of familiarity and history between Amanda and Elyot. Halfpenny is sensual in her physicality and commands the space with ease - probably with help from the incredible work of the costume department who create a gorgeous colour palette for our lead female. She is classy, she sparkly and she is the perfect match to Shepard's Elyot flame. Shepard shows impeccable comedic timing and full dedication to detail; completely stealing the show. Supporting this dynamic duo is Daniel Millar who plays Amanda's new husband, Victor, and Shazia Nicholls as Sibyl, Elyot’s new wife. Both of these actors have a hard task of matching the performances given by Shepard in particular, but Millar hands in a Victor who is truly believable from start to finish. Whereas, unfortunately, the pressure of being a ‘clown’ of a character that may provide comedic relief at times sees Nicholls’ Sibyl as the weaker link amongst our lead cast.
The staging of the piece works well with the Royal Exchange’s space, as the in-the-round rotating stage is a smart choice for this play. We see the staging choice pay off in particular when we hit our climax scene - the stage speeds up in rotation as the patience between those on stage wears finer, cleverly lending to the atmosphere that the audience feels involved in. However, this is also the play's biggest downfall. A physical fight is always high risk, with having to make sure the actors feel safe as well as having the stage combat look ‘real’ whilst also lending to the story - and the physical explosion in this play is integral, so it has to be done right, and it goes wrong. The scene falls completely flat - with lack of energy and awkward positioning, the believability of the world that these wonderful actors had created for us, by simply handing in a terrible movement sequence, reminds us that these people are actors and not characters. An issue I believe could have been avoided, if the stage hadn’t been turning our actors faster and faster, we might have got the scene we needed.
All together, the piece is a success - Cowards plays are made to enjoy, and laugh with, and that is truly what we do. In a world that has become so serious, it's truly a luxury to go to the theatre and experience a world that we may not relate to, but all enjoy watching the same way we would a Christmas EastEnders episode.
Private Lives plays at The Royal Exchange, Manchester until Thursday 30th April.
★★★★
