28 October – 1 November
Noël Coward’s dark comedy about the on/off passions of a rich, reckless and divorced couple gets another airing with this, director Tanuja Amarasuriya’s first production since winning the Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST) Sir Peter Hall Director Award Scheme in 2024.
Amarasuriya says: “What surprised me most was how modern these characters felt. Their contradictions, needs, desires, insecurities, are all so recognisable. What do you do when you’re in love with someone who’s bad for you? That’s the question at the heart of the play for me, and it’s a question that’s still very much alive today.”
Elyot (Chirag Benedict-Lobo) and Amanda (Pepter Lunkuse) have endured a tempestuous marriage. Now divorced, five years later they are each honeymooning with new partners at the Grand Hotel, somewhere in the south of France. Unfortunately, they have booked into adjacent rooms in the hotel, so a meeting is inevitable. When that happens, an old passion is ignited and mayhem ensues. Elyot and Amanda’s fatal attraction for each other trumps any other sense of decorum or loyalty to their new partners Sybil (Sade Malone) and Victor (Ashley Gerlach) – their unresolved, private passions still seeking expression in spite of the historically destructive nature of the relationship. A jaundiced Coward quote illustrates what lies at the heart of the writing: ‘Cruelty, possessiveness and petty jealousy are traits you develop when in love.’
A playwright synonymous with the glamourous ‘high society’ of the 1930’s, Coward’s work reflects the glittering, entitled lives of those he mingled with. Set and costume designer Amy Jane Cook has channelled this sense of style perfectly with her beautifully realised art deco hotel frontage, lit with orange, blue and white sectioned panels. This will later be rotated to reveal Amanda’s elegant Parisian living room suite, bedecked by cherry red drapes and pink chaise longue. Gowns, suits, and wigs featuring 1930’s finger curls, are all on point.
The intentionally diverse casting for this production has created new challenges. How would it, for instance, express what we have come to expect of Coward’s very white, clipped-delivery world? Benedict-Lobo as the irresponsible, sometimes childish, attention-seeking Elyot and later Ashley Gerlach as the jilted and outraged Victor presented as unashamed figures of an old patriarchy – a jolt on the senses through this new multi-ethnic contemporary lens.
But there is fun to had in the pace of delivery and in this there is credit to director Amarasuriya. Benedict-Lobo’s Elyot and Lunkuse’s Amanda make for both sophisticated, playful lovers while also sulky, spiteful and sometimes violent misfits. Malone’s Sybil is always an effervescent presence on stage, whether squealing delight as a young wife beginning to live the dream or later enraged and in tears as it all falls apart. Ashley Gerlach gives Victor a taught, stiff presence, prone to resolving problems with his fists – although when that comes, the portrayal is more farcical than ominous.
Private Lives walks a difficult tightrope – where absurdity is balanced by either fickleness or malevolence. There were moments in this production where the malice seemed the more muted, allowing more of a sense of farce to pervade. But not without providing much food for thought.
★★★☆☆ Simon Bishop, 29 October 2025
Photography credit: Pamela Raith
