Noel Coward’s “Private lives” is as befuddling as relationships developed over a few pitchers at Hennessey’s
Noel Coward’s “Private Lives,” produced by Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities (CLOSBC), officially opens tomorrow (preview tonight) at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse. It’s a play about love, marriage, divorce, then more love and marriage and divorce among the same four affectionately depraved characters. The show is typical Coward-ly in the dry British humor of the 1930s, and equally as befuddling as relationships developed over a few pitchers at Hennessey’s on the Hermosa Pier. Coward’s characters probably sipped champagne and chose caviar over buffalo wings, though, given their couture.
Nonetheless, the buzz is abuzz just minutes into “Private Lives” as Syble (Barbara Urich) and her new husband Elyot [sic] (Patrick Vest) take up residence in one of the honeymoon suites in a swanky Deauville hotel. The plot thickens, as our ascotted gents would say, when Amanda (Suzanne Dean) and Victor (Cy Brown) move into the suite next door. Naturally, for drama’s sake, there is a shared balcony from which the sparkling view of Paris divine. Elyot and Amanda are former spouses who shared passionate love and even more passionate disputes in their three-year marriage. The play offers mostly subtle foreplay among the polite four, and all the while, the (supposed) gentlemen are dressed in appropriate three-piece flannel suits, pencil moustaches drawn with Disney-like precision, and spats that never show a scuff mark.
The ladies in this deviant ménage a quatre are equally regaled in the finest of threads. As with most Coward shows, all appears quite proper. That is, until neighbors discover neighbors and well-flossed fangs emerge between perfectly glossed lips.
All in the words
“The show is wonderful because of the language. If you ever heard Noel Coward talk, that’s the way he wrote,” said Stephanie Coltrin, artistic director of CLOSBC and director of “Private Lives.”
Coltrin said that, unlike many Coward shows, there is almost no music. “He wrote one song, ‘Someday I’ll Find You,’ but that’s all for this show.” She said that pre-show music will be a variety of his best-known compositions.
There have been stage, radio and film productions of “Private Live,” but Coltrin insists this version is based on the original play. “We added some material that was introduced in a 1975 stage remake that was very funny, so they’re back in…
“We are absolutely doing this in period, complete with British accents,” she said.” Most of the actors have done British accents before, so they are very facile at it.”
Victor strives for Victory
The character of Victor is played by Cy Brown, a CLOSBC veteran of three years and several productions. Victor is pusillanimous at the beginning of the story, mainly because of his undaunting love of new wife, Amanda. But the good old boy begins to grow a backbone toward the end of the story.
Brown, a native of Columbus, Ohio, raised in Arizona, is now “Going on year three in Southern California.” He lives in Hollywood, having moved out here “to pursue the dream,” he said. He also noted that it’s often a fairly trying commute to get to the South Bay, but he’s dealing with it and happy to be a part of this show. Brown has kept busy doing theater since his first week in town… “I’ve done a lot of classical work for the most part; Shakespeare, Noel Coward, Chekhov, Shaw, stuff like that….
“I’m noticing right now that Coward is coming into vogue. With theater, these things come in cycles; maybe Shaw will be big for a while, but I think Noel Coward is coming back into style. I’ve noticed a lot of theaters have been working on him… There’s actually a Noel Coward Society that has been throwing some money around to get young people interested in him. It’s fun to be working this show at this time because he is quite fashionable now.
“The dry, wise-cracking fun of it all is sometimes hard for people to understand all the time. But, yeah, people now are getting behind the sleek, elegant and beautiful world that he created… It’s a beautiful world of smoking jackets and quick one-liners, beautiful women.”
Brown enjoys doing the play in a British accent and “in the style. We’re taking a little more time to work on this show than we usually get (at HB Playhouse),” he said, “just to get a feel for his (Coward’s) world compared to the one from which we come. We work on the accents, we work on the style and we work hard on the pace of the show.” Coward’s writing requires quick delivery and deadpan faces.
He speaks highly of CLOSBC, saying that “there’s great talent and staff and they treat their actors well.”
New home for CLOSBC
CLOSBC and the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, longtime home of the company, recently divorced because of a financial dispute.
“We postponed ‘Company’ to next year,” said Coltrin. “We’ll be doing three shows… the first being ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie” at our new venue, the Centinela Valley Arts Center, which is actually only three blocks from where we used to be. It’s in Lawndale; a brand new theater that was opened in May at Lawndale High School. It’s a beautiful $65 million facility.”
The season schedule for shows at Hermosa Beach Playhouse remains intact.
‘Private Lives,’ CLOSBC production at Hermosa Beach Playhouse, Pier Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway, Hermosa. Preview tonight at 8 p.m.; Regular schedule Tuesday thru Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday matinees Oct. 30 and Nov. 6; Sunday Oct.30, 7 p.m. Show closes with Nov. 6, 2 p.m. performance. Tickets are $35-$45. Call (310) 372-4477 or visit CLOSBC.com. ER
