Therry Dramatic Society. The Arts Theatre. 22 Aug 2013.
Vapour cigarettes are not as conducive to the languid mannerisms of the old tobacco ciggie. Their little puffs of mist are a far cry from the coils of blue smoke produced by burning tobacco. But they are at least an easing of the regulatory vice which made it just pointless to put on a swathe of period plays, Noel Coward top of the list.
Barry Hill's latest production of ‘Private Lives’ for Therry features lots of the new-tech puffers, mock-lit by lighters and puffed here and there. Of course, they don't burn ash and you can't stub them out - but they're a start. Now the actors only have to pretend that there is some sensual pleasure in the act of smoking them.
The audience has to do its part too, understanding that time and trends have made this quite a dilemma for the theatre.
And the critic has to judge how well the director has integrated the business without it jarring.
‘Private Lives’ has a lot of smoking. More than occurs in this production. Back in the Coward day, people of style smoked pretty much all the time with flourish and expression. The wave of a cigarette or its angry butting-out were mannerisms inherent to the culture of an era. ‘Private Lives’ is a play of manners, so one is on edge, watching how the times are translated.
It scrapes in. Just. Cigarettes were a language in their own right when they prevailed. Hill has managed to give a moment's delicious intensity to the great smoking reconciliation scene between the divorcees. So carefully has that scene been choreographed, one has hope for a future in which companies will stop excising the history of smoking from the theatre and cope with veracity.
This Therry show has lots of bright and beautiful Coward mannerisms in classic array. Hill has done the play before and knows the rules of the clipped delivery and comic timing. Indeed, he has the play very well paced albeit the bits which have always palled.
The cast, similarly, is well experienced - some perhaps a little mature for the roles.
The set designer Patsy Thomas has added her own comic touch to the famous opening scene where, across a Deauville hotel balcony, neighbouring honeymooners discover that they are former spouses with new partners. Thomas's French hotel facade is a strange dappled plum colour and the balcony doors are of some unknown architectural style, so small that the actors look like giants as they enter the stage. It is comical, but not quite in the Coward spirit.
John Koch carries off the quirky, arrogant, upper crusty character of Elyot with eloquent swagger, albeit a mixed delivery. He certainly has mastered the beautifully clipped consonant. His "Ts" are terrific. His reactive timing is lovely and, partnered by the very elegant and ever-able Dianne K Lang as Amanda, he takes some good falls. Indeed, their grand marital brawl is performed with seeming fearlessness so it is not only funny, it is quite hairy.
Brad Martin slips nicely into the scene as Victor, Amanda's hapless new husband. He has the Coward look and feel. Allison Scharber as poor, sweet Sybil also demonstrates a proper respect for Coward tradition although her costumes don't help her.
The wit and wickedness of ‘Private Lives’ lives on and ever will. It's a favourite play for many and directors such as Barry Hill relish reviving the hilarious political incorrectness of it all. It is a classic tale of the couple who can't live with each other and can't live without each other. As Hill points out in his program notes, a love/hate relationship like that of Elyot and Amanda would go straight into domestic violence counselling today.
Fortunately, as preserved in the aspic of a comedy of manners, ‘Private Lives’ shines on as the sort of play which can pack a theatre to the rafters even on the most dismal winter's night.
Samela Harris
When: 22 to 31 Aug
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
