A Chance Encounter Reignites Old Flames

Skewering the Leisure Class

Originally billed as a comedy of manners, Noel Coward’s 1930 play, Private Lives, is the final show of the season at Irish Classical Theatre Company and what a show it is. This wildly entertaining and quite disturbing play skewers the British leisure class, those folks who had too much money and too much time on their hands who sailed through life as if Brittania was still ruling the waves and half the world, the Great Depression was but a pesky nuisance, and that Hitler guy on the rise in Germany was of no consequence at all. In other words, theirs was a world in which they thought the most pressing issue they would face was which cocktail to order before dinner.

Alas, even the wealthy and amoral among us are not immune to the human comedy, i.e., they screw up, too. They suffer romantic angst like everyone else, and can get themselves into very sticky situations, just like the hoi polloi they so disparage. In that spirit, enter our two couples in Private Lives.

Honeymoon Bliss?

Eliot and Sibyl Chase are newly wed and spending their wedding night at a hotel in France. While lounging on the terrace, she expresses great curiosity about his first wife, which he discourages to no avail. When she goes back into the hotel, he remains. Another woman enters the terrace. She happens to be his first wife, Amanda, who is also honeymooning at the hotel with her new spouse, Victor Prynne. They see each other and then all hell breaks loose.

Are Eliot and Amanda still in love? Would they recognize love if it bit them on the nose? They know all about lust, and taking what you want regardless of the consequences. But love? Naaa.

Ben Michael Moran and Jenn Stafford as Eliot and Amanda are excellent as the blatantly amoral couple, who live for their own pleasure and the rest of the world be damned. He carries the sardonic wit and public school bad boy vibe like he was born to it. He is hysterically funny at times, begging Sibyl to stop talking about Amanda, or making one of his cutting remarks. Ms. Stafford exudes the flapper mentality that pushed the boundaries of what women were allowed by being blatantly sexual and taking nothing seriously. She gives the impression of a woman half playing a part, and half believing her outrageousness. The physicality between the two, from their flirty come-ons, lustful lovemaking, and out and out brawls, are visceral in their intensity. These people do nothing by half, and Mr. Moran and Ms. Stafford play it all to the hilt.

Anna Fernandez is the much younger Sibyl, a child-woman who pouts and cries and won’t stop until she has her way. She is very effective in the role, carrying on like an eight year old, her insecurity demanding Eliot’s reassurance of his love for her. Darryl Semira is Victor Prynne, the unfortunate new husband of Amanda. He is great as a pompous sort, ready to put his dukes up when his woman is insulted, but then backing down before contact is made. He huffs and puffs, strikes poses, and generally makes a fool of himself. These two seem like they have a moral compass at first, but do they? Hmmm.

There is a fifth character in the play. Maria Pedro plays Louise, a French maid, in a short funny role. But her role as a chanteuse is the most fun. She arrives on the set dressed to the nines in a sparkling gown and belts out Something Stupid. Only later does one realize it was a harbinger of what was to come. She is a hoot.

Time Changes Little

Chris Kelly directed all of this with a sure hand, keeping this fast-paced show moving at a good clip, while losing nothing of the undercurrent moving below these apparently devil-may-care people. Fight Director Steve Vaughan had a great deal to do, as these characters love to brawl. Fine job there. The entire production shines.

Noel Coward played Eliot opposite Gertrude Lawrence’s Amanda and Laurence Olivier played Victor in the London production in 1930. The two men reprised their roles on Broadway in 1931. The play has been revived many times, with the likes of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor performing it on Broadway, as well as many other well-known actors. In short, it still has legs after ninety-four years, and is as timely today as it was in 1930.

Private Lives is uproariously funny, and a joy to watch. Coward’s dialogue is devilishly clever and a delight to hear.  At the same time, the amorality and hedonism underlying all that hilarity is distressing. The Irish Classical Theatre’s production retains all of those elements and is a very entertaining night of theater.