Coward's Private Lives
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from October 1992.
Brought to you by
Fortunately, in this production the four actors playing the main protagonists are well cast.
The play concerns a meeting between two honeymoon couples: Amanda and Victor Prynne and Sybil and Elyot Chase. The complication is that Amanda and Elyot were formerly married to each other.
Jacqueline Caunt is particularly strong as the elegant, demanding Amanda Prynne. She is so commanding in her initial scenes she overshadows Andrew Le Brun as her mild, rather one-dimensional, new husband Victor. Only later, when he has an opportunity to show some rage, does Le Brun warm to the part and seem more comfortable.
Gabrielle Wheaton takes on the role well of the femininely loyal Sybil, Elyot's second wife. She is instinctive as the unassuming and happy spouse, the antithesis of the worldly Amanda. Wheaton manages to convey the joy of a new bride, the distress of desertion and later, the anger, all quite naturally.
Following their shock meeting, Amanda and Elyot fight with their new partners. They seek refuge simultaneously on the adjoining balconies of their suites where old passions are rekindled and old wounds closed and forgotten. They decide to run away from their marriages and be together, and the play revolves around their relationship which alternates between oaths of love and bickering before its denouement.
The situations produce a number of extremely amusing lines that could never fail with an audience. Although written and set in the high society of the 1930s, the humourous play is timeless as the subject, love/hate relationships, is just as relevant today.
The scene of a massive lovers' fight between Amanda and Elyot is very well-staged with the appropriate crashing furniture, flying props and the actors rolling around the floor with much applauded realism.
Ian Bowell, as Elyot Chase, sits well with his part. He plays the character of Amanda's nemesis with a good bit of venom, at times spitting out his incisive lines with some bite.
His character is not meant to be totally sympathetic, nor is it. He, like his first wife, revels in his cleverness. Bowell manages to convey that superiority. with some grandeur, if a little too quickly and sometimes trying just a little too hard.
It may have been first night nerves, but the actors had a tendency to shift into high gear and speed through their lines. They could well have slowed down and savoured those words a little more, giving the audience more of a chance to enjoy the humour.
That was just a small glitch in a fine-looking production that was well received as the audience obviously appreciated the work of volunteers both on-stage and behind the scenes.
"Private Lives" continues this week at the Prospect Playhouse on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets cost $10.
