Private Lives

First presented By Charles Cochran at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh on 18th August 1930 ( then on a five week tour to Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and Southsea. West Edn debut at The Phoenix Theatre, London on 24th September 1930 where it had a 101 performances.

First revival by Martin Sabine at the Victoris Palace, London on 25th May 1936 in a season by the London Repertory Company for 12 performances. Revoived later by H.M. Tennent and John GC. Wilson at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle on 10t July 1944 for a14 week tour and the to The Apollo Theatre, London on 1st November 1944 for 716 performances later transferring to the Fortune Theatre on 10th June 1946 with some changes in the cast.

Original cast: Sybil Chase - Adrienne Allen; Elyot Chase - Noël Coward; Victor Prynne - Laurence Olivier; Amanda Prynne - Gertrude Lawrence. Directed by Noël Coward and designed by Gladys Calthrop.

 

Synopsis:

The action of the play revolves around a divorced couple, Elyot and Amanda Chase, who meet again on honeymoon with their second spouses. They soon realise that they are still totally in love with each other and should never have divorced; they abandon their new spouses and run off together. They are however soon quarreling in the same violent manner that ended their marriage. The dramatic setting is ridiculously contrived but provides a structure that Coward uses to display his finest wit and comedy, which are the strengths of the play. The protagonists lampoon the hypocrisies and pretensions of modern manners and social conventions and seek true love regardless of the cost to their reputations. Once they hide from the "outside world," in an apartment in Paris, their inner passions and jealousies (their "private lives") consume them, leaving them trapped in an inescapable cycle of love and hate. Coward creates a fast-paced comedy, moving from awkward coincidence to running farce. Prone to cynicism and irreverence, his glamorous upper-class characters seem incapable of taking much of anything seriously for long—a condition which usually proves contagious for the audience as well.

Scenes:

A hotel in France.

Elyot Chase is newly married and on honeymoon in France. His ex-wife Amanda is also newly married, on honeymoon and unbeknown to them both in the hotel suite next door.

Taking the air on their respective balconies they are shocked to discover each other. Elyot tells his new wife Sibyl that they must leave at once but won’t tell her why. She refuses.

Amanda tells her husband Victor that they must leave at once but won’t tell him why. He refuses. She tells him she has seen Elyot but he doesn’t believe her and they argue.

Elyot and Amanda chat alone on their balconies, discover they are still in love and are soon planning to run away together. After they have left, Victor and Sibyl meet on their separate balconies and start chatting.

An apartment in Paris.

Elyot and Amanda have just finished their evening meal. They talk about their hasty escape from their respective honeymoons and why their relationship failed the first time. It becomes obvious that they split up because they continually argued and the arguing soon starts again. At the height of their argument Victor and Sibyl enter the room.

The same apartment the following morning.

Victor and Sibyl have stayed over night in the flat. They are awake first. Having seen their respective spouses fighting with each other the night before they congratulate themselves on a lucky escape. Amanda and Elyot get up and continue their argument. They talk to Victor and Sibyl about divorce. Victor and Sibyl have been getting on well but soon they too start to argue. As their argument intensifies Amanda and Elyot, feuds forgotten, leave them to it.

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