Private Lives, Minerva, Chichester

The 'West End surely beckons' for Noël Coward's comic play on an unconventional reconciliation of a divorced couple
p34 Private Lives at The Minerva Theatre, Chichester Anna Chancellor as Amanda, Toby Stephens as Elyot Pic:Alastair Muir
Pic:Alastair Muir
10 June 2013

One of the many delights of Private Lives (1930) is the way in which, when cast astutely, it can reveal hidden comic talents in an actor not usually known for laughs.

It worked a treat for Matthew Macfadyen two years ago and does the same here for Toby Stephens. I’ve never seen Stephens smile on stage before — and I’ve never seen him better than this.

He has been blessed to have been paired with the magisterial Anna Chancellor, an actress currently in an abundantly rich vein of form both on stage and screen. The pair, as reluctantly reunited divorcees Amanda and Elyot, are gloriously at home with the glittering lines of Noël Coward’s high comedy and surmount the challenges of Act Two, where many have come unstuck before, with ease.

Having confirmed Norfolk is very flat and binned previous spouses, Sybil (Stephens’s real-life wife Anna-Louise Plowman) and Victor (Anthony Calf), in order to run away from their second honeymoons at the end of Act One, the next scene sees them locked in a repeated, potentially repetitive, cycle of swooning and screaming, as old tensions threaten to scupper their relationship once more.

Chancellor and Stephens have a cherishably easy chemistry as they sprawl about Amanda’s opulent Parisian flat (well done, designer Anthony Ward) in silk pyjamas. Yet crucially, behind all the sparkling flippancy which is delivered with ease in Jonathan Kent’s stylish production, they convince us that there’s something really at stake, a history, a love, a lifetime.

Stephens has a roguish twinkle that occasionally clouds over into the look of a petulant little boy, while Chancellor captures with precision Amanda’s lightning-quick changes of humour. Chichester’s terrific 2012 Festival season might be drawing to a close, but the West End surely beckons for this lot.

Until Oct 27 (01243 781312, cft.org.uk)

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