The Stage

Private Lives

Published Monday 25 January 2010 at 11:05 by Lesley Bates

While Norfolk, as Amanda waspishly observes, is very flat, Salisbury Playhouse’s latest peek into Private Lives is anything but.

It bubbles with invention and slips down in a satisfying gurgle of pleasure like vintage champagne.

Colin Falconer’s set is all curved elegance and the gowns are gorgeous, but director Philip Wilson is not content with superficial artifice and proves that Coward’s comedy is not just about surface wit and posturing - although there is plenty of that, especially in the beautifully done opening terrace scene.

Never losing its feather-light touch, his production gets under the skin of a relationship gone sour, of wounds inflicted but never properly healed and the cruelty and petty jealousy that comes from an all-consuming love.

The chemistry between Elyot and Amanda positively fizzes, with Nicholas Boulton and Susie Trayling perfectly matched as the sparring lovers.

Boulton lounges lazily, brushes off put-downs with insouciant charm and then imbues a glance with such exquisite pain, it breaks your heart.

Trayling’s sleek Amanda is a creature of brittle sophistication and wild impulse and her Isadora-inspired dance that sparks the Act II fight is a lovely touch.

But what is particularly pleasing here is the emergence of their frequently two-dimensional other halves as equal partners in the play.

Sophie Robert’s Sibyl is a quivering mass of insecurity and deep-seated jealousy, waiting to explode and Simon Harrison’s puffed-up pompous Victor is a decent type punching way above his weight.

The snap and crackle in their developing relationship is a joy and their fight as the curtain falls threatens to be every bit as vicious as their former partners.

The starry pairing of Kim Cattrall and Matthew Macfadyen is heading for the West End, but Salisbury audiences can be delighted with the home-grown treat on their doorstep.

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