THEATRE REVIEW:
PRIVATE LIVES
26 SEPT/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
R: 4.5/5
Pictured: Kim Kattrell,
Paul Gross

TORONTO - In their day, the plays of Noel Coward were considered by many to be the ne plus ultra of sophistication, affording as they did often amusing glimpses into a world where all that glittered was indeed gold and everything, from the diamonds to the champagne, sparkled with elegance. But what to make of works like Coward’s PRIVATE LIVES, considered by many to be his most exquisitely crafted comedy, in a world where the Kardashians are cast as arbiters of elegance and, on a Jersey Shore that seems to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific, all that glitters is the latest Trump development?

Well, if you’re acclaimed British director Richard Eyre, you throw a few things overboard — particularly in the brittle sophistication department, broadening the innuendo and sending up the elegance with just the faintest touch of slapstick — and then go full speed ahead. While there is no way of knowing what Coward might have made of Eyre’s Broadway-bound take on PRIVATE LIVES, which opened at the Royal Alexandra Theatre Sunday, one suspects he would have embraced Eyre’s talent to amuse and enthusiastically welcomed this as a PRIVATE LIVES for our time.

As it was in its acclaimed West End edition, Eyre’s production is built around the comedic talents of Kim Cattrall, still best known as the sexually liberated Samantha on Sex and the City, despite several attempts to broaden her horizon and deepen her reputation. Cattrall is cast as gay divorcee Amanda, who on the night of her second wedding, finds herself honeymooning next door to her ex-husband, Elyot, who is also similarly occupied with his second wife. From the get go, Cattrall makes it clear that being divorced might just be the least of Amanda’s transgressions as she straddles chairs and otherwise comports herself with a delightful air of sexual anachronism, underpinned by strong comedic chops.

As Elyot, Paul Gross abandons the red serge of Due South in favour of black cashmere tuxes and silk pajamas, and while he may not wear them with the louche air of one to the manner born, he still fills them out to maximum effect, all the while demonstrating a wicked talent for comedy that, while broader than Coward demands, still serves the work without diminishing it unduly.

As Amanda and Elyot’s newly acquired and hastily abandoned spouses, Sybil and Victor, Eyre has cast Anna Madeley and Simon Paisley-Day, and while the former could (and probably should) play her character as more of a pill, the latter is note perfect, to the point that he draws some of the show’s biggest laughs with some of its least funny lines. Caroline Lena Olsson rounds out the cast, making the most of the role of Amanda’s French maid.

Eyre and his collaborators — Rob Howell on set and costumes, David Howe on lighting — have even shaken things up from a design perspective. Where designers for PRIVATE LIVES have long vied to create sets and costumes seemingly ripped from the Architectural Digests and Vogues of the day, this production places far less importance on leaving their audience in awe. The first act, set in a seaside hotel in the northwest of France, takes place on adjoining terraces that are adequate if unremarkable, which is, come to think of it, a pretty fair description of the costuming in that act as well. And when the action moves to Amanda’s Paris flat for Acts 2 and 3, sets and costumes acquire an almost tongue-in-cheek element that contributes hugely to the fun for everyone, save a few hapless gold fish.

About the only thing that Eyre hasn’t changed is the way all the best productions of Coward have always treated his text, which becomes, in the act of carelessly tossing it off, pure comic gold.

PRIVATE LIVES runs through Oct. 30.