Private Lives: Coward Classic for Adelaide

Private Lives: Coward Classic for Adelaide

Adelaide’s Therry Dramatic Society will stage Noël Coward’s Private Lives in August 2013, at The Arts Theatre, Adelaide.

In December 1929, Noël Coward set off on a tour of the Far East. While there, he contracted influenza. He spent part of his convalescence drafting a play, writing the final script in less than four days. He cabled his friend, the celebrated actress Gertrude Lawrence, asking her to keep autumn 1930 free to perform in his new play, Private Lives.

Despite Lawrence’sconflicting schedules and her unenthusiastic comment that there was “nothing wrong (with the play) that can’t be fixed”, Private Lives opened in August 1930 at the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh. It starred Coward, Lawrence, Adrianne Allen and a twenty three- year-old Laurence Olivier. After a five week regional tour it premiered in London at the new Phoenix Theatre.

Although the play received mixed reviews, a Broadway production followed in 1931. The play has been produced many times since, including with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor famously starring as Elyot and Amanda. In 1931 the play became a film and has also been adapted for television.

The director of Therry Dramatic Society’s production, Barry Hill, is something of a Noël Coward specialist, having previously directed Coward’s plays Blithe Spirit, Fallen Angels, Waiting in the Wings, Tonight at 8.15, This Happy Breed and Present Laughter. He also played Noël Coward to Pam O’Grady’s Gertrude Lawrence in Noël & Gertie, also for Therry.

In Therry’s production of Private Lives John Koch plays Elyot, who is honeymooning at a hotel in France with his second wife, Sybil. The romantic mood is not helped by Sybil’s curiosity about Elyot’s first marriage. In the adjoining suite, his first wife Amanda, played by Dianne K. Lang, is starting her new life with Victor. When Elyot and Amanda discover they are sharing a terrace while on their honeymoons with new and younger spouses, the traditional witty and acerbic blend of Coward comedy unfolds – softened just a touch by his sublime ballad: "Some Day I'll Find You".

Actors John Koch and Dianne K. Lang are both well-known to Adelaide theatre audiences. John and Dianne played the roles of Elyot and Amanda in the Private Lives balcony scene as part of Tonight at 8.15 – three ‘one-act’ Coward plays – for Therry in 1998.

John has a long list of acting credits, including last year playing the hapless George Hay in Moon Over Buffalo for Therry, during which the opening scene of Private Lives was parodied with John’s character appearing in a Cyrano de Bergerac costume. Over her acting life, Dianne has portrayed diverse and complex characters, such as Eva Peron in Evita. She has achieved Oscarts awards for her acting, as well as an Adelaide Theatre Guide Award for Best Individual Female Performer. 

John and Dianne are supported by an experienced additional cast in Allison Scharber, Brad Martin and Tamara Bennetts.

Will Adelaide audiences react in the same way to Therry’s production as Coward’s assessment of the play’s audiences in 1930?

Wrote Coward, “The critics described Private Lives variously as ‘tenuous, thin, brittle, gossamer, iridescent, and delightfully daring’. All of which connoted in the public mind cocktails, repartee and irreverent allusions to copulation, thereby causing a gratifying number of respectable people to queue up at the box office.”

Lesley Reed

Bookings: Mon- Fri, 10 am to 5pm on (08) 8296 3477.

                   From Mon, 19 August call (08) 8410 5515, Mon-Fri 10 am to 5pm.

                   BASS or Venuetix.

Venue: The Arts Theatre, 53 Angas Street, Adelaide.

Dates: Preview, Wed, 21 August.

            Thursday 22 Aug-Sat 24 Aug and Wed 28 Aug-Sat 31 Aug, 8pm.

            Matinees both Saturdays at 2pm.

Tickets: Adults $25, Concession $20, Students under 17, $11.

              Wednesday 21 August preview $10.

Images: Dianne K. Lang (Amanda) and John Koch (Elyot) and (lower) left to right- Allison Scharber (Sybil), Tamara Bennetts (Louise), John Koch (Elyot), Dianne K. Lang (Amanda), and Brad Martin (Victor). Rehearsal PhotographsSupplied by The Therry Dramatic Society. 

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