The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Fund us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • Tumblr

  • RSS


CultureTheatre

Private Lives at the Gielgud

Private Lives at the Gielgud | Theatre review
4 July 2013
Eleanor Foulkes
Avatar
Eleanor Foulkes
4 July 2013

Private Lives is a play with a star-studded past: Laurence Olivier was in the original 30s cast and many great actors have played with Noel Coward’s tour de force. In keeping with the play’s history, Anna Chancellor and Toby Stephens are now stepping into Amanda and Elyot’s rather fancy shoes.

PrivateLives_fullposterThe play opens with Elyot (Stephens) on his honeymoon with his rather saccharine new wife, Sibyl (Anna-Louise Plowman). On their balcony, they discuss his previous marriage and Elyot seems rather unenthused about the whole affair. As the couple retires, Amanda (Chancellor) and Victor (Anthony Calf) emerge and have an almost identical conversation. Predictably, Amanda and Elyot both end up on their neighbouring balconies at the same time, in a most un-Romeo and Juliet way, and realise that they still love each other.

The set captures the simultaneous decadence and decline of the decade wonderfully. It opens with a bleached, simple stage that reflects the bland peacefulness of the protagonists’ new relationships, which then changes in the second act to a decadent, Baudelairian boudoir, reflecting the tumultuous passion of Elyot and Amanda’s relationship and echoing the contrasting connections beautifully.

The acting is superb, with no actor hitting a false note the entire evening. Toby Stephens is an uncannily good cad, all flippancy and carelessness, letting the underlying vulnerability of the character peek through at just the right moments. Anna Chancellor still manages to stand out; her work is both intelligent and incredibly free, creating an Amanda that is both entrancing and maddening, with very interesting feminist proclivities that underline the relevance of the play, even in our “modern” era. Indeed, did not Texan senator Wendy Davis just have to speak for 12 hours to block legislation by an overwhelmingly male senate that would inhibit a woman’s ability to choose what to do with her own body? Meanwhile, Elyot calls Amanda a slattern, saying that promiscuity is unbecoming for a woman but with no such reservations for a man.

Sitting in the audience as the actors rise for their final bow, one questions the belief that Coward’s play depicts a society much more constrained and regulated than ours. Private Lives humbles us and reminds us that, though society has evolved, it has also remained just the same.

Verdict: ★★★★★

Eleanor Foulkes

Private Lives is on at the Gielgud Theatre until 21st September 2013; for further information or to book visit here.

Watch actor, Toby Stephens, speak about the production here:

Related Items

More in Theatre

Tacenda

★★★★★
Georgie Cowan-Turner
Read More

Soft Animals at Soho Theatre

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

Cyprus Avenue at the Royal Court Theatre

★★★★★
Musanna Ahmed
Read More

Only Fools and Horses: The Musical at Theatre Royal Haymarket

★★★★★
Ghazaleh Golpira
Read More

Shipwreck at Almeida Theatre

★★★★★
Connor Campbell
Read More

Come From Away at Phoenix Theatre

★★★★★
Connor Campbell
Read More

Mortified

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More

Armour

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More

Berberian Sound Studio at the Donmar Warehouse

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Tickets

Theatre tickets

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Marighella
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Jeremy Loops and James Hersey at the Roundhouse
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • STEVE O SMITH autumn/winter 2019 collection presentation for LFW
    Fashion weeks
  • Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Aftermath premiere: On the red carpet with Keira Knightly, Alexander Skarsgård, director James Kent and cast
    Cinema
  • Tacenda
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Elizabethan Treasures at the National Portrait Gallery
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Soft Animals at Soho Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Win Schindler’s List 25th anniversary edition on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray™
    Competitions
  • The Aftermath premiere: On the red carpet with Keira Knightly, Alexander Skarsgård, director James Kent and cast
    Cinema
  • Elizabethan Treasures at the National Portrait Gallery
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Soft Animals at Soho Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Aftermath premiere: On the red carpet with Keira Knightly, Alexander Skarsgård, director James Kent and cast
    Cinema
  • Cyprus Avenue at the Royal Court Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Only Fools and Horses: The Musical at Theatre Royal Haymarket
    ★★★★★
    Theatre

Instagram

Something is wrong.
Instagram token error.
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Fund us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2018 FL Media Ltd

John Stewart Farrier – Voices from Westminster at the Strand Gallery | Exhibition review
Easy Money | Movie review