Frivolous high class English society at its best, "Private Lives" takes one through romantic turns of comedy and wit.
The play makes one appreciate the capacities of language and conversation in its clever plot development through dialogue. Every precious word in this three-act play makes an impact with its own special twist, and a vibrant and dynamic cast brings this challenging dialogue to life.
The play introduces Amanda Prynne (Mary-Lynn Ring '98) and Elyot Chase (Brent Knopf '00), once a happily married couple, now divorced and honey-mooning with their new spouses, Victor Prynne (Brett Perala '00) and Sybil Chase (Emily Hay '98). Conflict and tension are bound to build when the couples honeymoon right next-door to one another.
Emotional and expressive, Ring plays her role with convincing dramatic flair, a true lady of the early 20th-century English upper-class in both speech and poise.
Ring does a superb job playing Amanda for the melodramatic, desperate character that she is, inevitably drawing a few laughs from the audience with her exaggerated emotion and deliberate, matter-of life-and-death exclamations and gestures.
Hay is convincing in her role as the insecure, sensitive wife. Ostentatious, often exasperatingly teary-eyed, and never hesitating to put on airs, Hay effectively portrays the life of the snobbish and rich. She is spoiled, proud and often humorously immature.
Knopf and Perala are formal yet emotional. These two actors know how to perform heated anger in a gentlemanly manner. Clearly from the performance of these freshmen, the audience can tell that the women of upper-class England in the 1930s were not the only ones with sharp tongues and keen conversational sense.
Much to the enjoyment of the audience, Knopf and Perala were never afraid to let their characters be "flippant," and combined with the persistance and strong will of the women, this made for very funny confrontations and arguments among the four characters. Particularly notable exchanges occurred between Amanda and Elyot in Act II, and between Elyot and Victor in the final act.
The force of the play lies in the words and their wit, and all four actors successfully captured the essence and spirit of Noel Coward's language, conveying with it all the humor and clever twist it was meant to possess.
Beyond the humorous script and successful acting, the play was also most impressive technically. The set, by Matt Welander '97, was very well designed and constructed. From the outside of a hotel in Act I to the inside of an apartment in the second and third acts, special attention was paid to details.
The costumes by Jennifer Moeller '98 also drew the audience into the 1930s. Clearly having the look of the rich and high society of early twentieth century England, the costumes helped enhance the illustration of these upperclass characters. Not only did the costumes look real, but they were also convincingly noble and elegant.
The often soft and subtle music and lighting by Aurora Leute '97 incorporated themselves into this very intricate production scheme to create the mood and ambience of social life and romance in the 1930s.
If the goal of the production was to make the audience catch a glimpse into this life of long ago, then it has succeeded. The language of the play is alive and enhanced by the many effective production elements around it.
