PRIVATE LIVES, Coward, Bham Rep till 27 Oct

Birmingham

PRIVATE LIVES: Noel Coward
Birmingham Rep, Tkts 0121 236 4455
Runs: 2h 15m, two intervals, till Saturday 27th Oct 2001
Review: Rod Dungate, 26th Sept 2001

Shaw and Backhouse triumphantly reconcile Coward's opposing world views and pull off the magic trick.

Ian Shaw and Carolyn Backhouse triumphantly reconcile Coward's opposing world views in Jonathan Church’s opener as Birmingham Rep's new Artistic Director. Coward, in his best plays, frequently represents people who wish to break convention because of their passion for life yet wants to portray them within a format that extols the virtues of superficiality. He wants his actors to be passionate while standing back from it at the same time (being 'flippant' in this play.) A tall order.

PRIVATE LIVES is the story of a couple who divorce, marry someone else and end up in next door hotel suites on honeymoon: they then run away together and 'live in sin'. On the face of it a superficial story (not to say a bit daft.) However, Shaw (Elyot) and Backhouse (Amanda), pulling back from the stereotyped Cowardian clipped delivery, create their own heightened style from within and pull off the magic trick. There is also an intimacy in the playing between them that speaks volumes about the characters' past lives together. The result is that, against the odds, we really care about the couple.

If the play is about love then it's about the impossibility, or rather complexity, of love – Elyot and Amanda can only relate within a tempestuous relationship. Shaw and Backhouse have a sure hand with the comedy without undercutting the disturbing, darker side of the play. Elyot hits Amanda, for instance: something deeply unsettling to us today.

LIVES is well known for the song, SOMEDAY I'LL FIND YOU. Amanda begins her song with the line 'Strange how potent cheap music is' – we do not laugh, we say 'Yes' and understand why she sings. BACKHOUSE internalises the song and produces one of the earliest of many wonderful moments the production offers.

Church has directed with confidence: he is aware of the complexities and loose ends within the play and far from trying to avoid them or tie them neatly up, revels in them.

2001-09-26 11:05:28