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Private Lives at PushPush Theater
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Private Lives.” Through April 2. The verdict: A sophisticated drawing-room comedy, minus the sophistication.
Imagine arriving at a seaside hotel for your second honeymoon only to find your ex-spouse honeymooning in the suite next door.
Such is the sticky wicket British playwright Noel Coward created for his most famous couple, the can’t-live-together-can’t-live-apart Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne, in his wicked and witty 1930 play “Private Lives.”
When the pair fail to convince their new partners to flee and find themselves alone together, their dangerous yet irresistible chemistry resurfaces. Faster than you can down a glass of champagne, they abandon poor Sybil and Victor and make for a Parisian love nest.
In PushPush Theatre’s stripped-down production of “Lives,” that love nest is nothing more than a lumpy love seat on a bare stage.
Not only has director Tim Habeger done away with the usual well-dressed set, he’s made the characters American rather than British and moved the setting from 1930 to the present day. This approach, he says in his program notes, is designed to help audiences feel that the play’s essence still resonates.
Well, the story and characters do hold up — and hold our attention. (In fact, the couples may remind you a bit of the unhappy foursome in the recent play-turned-movie “Closer.”) The problem is that Habeger’s take on the play’s essence — that it’s a battle between personal freedom and moral restraint — is perhaps a little nobler than what Coward had in mind.
Amanda and Elyot are selfish, shallow people: They couldn’t give a fig what others say as long as they’re happy. Their predicament, as Amanda points out, is that they can’t stay happy — together or apart.
The real essence of Coward’s play lies in the vagaries of romantic attraction and the notion that none of us really knows what goes on behind our neighbors’ doors.
Setting “Private Lives” present-day also results in some credulity-straining moments: Would a man who listens to Wilco really be shocked to hear that his ex-wife has taken up with other men during their five years apart?
And while we might see the humor in a man of 1930 proclaiming that “some women should be struck regularly, like gongs,” we’re less inclined to forgive that from a man of 2005.
Then, too, Coward’s language belies Push Push’s modern music and costumes. No one in this century uses words like “shilly-shallying” or marvels at the technological might of the radio.
Though Habeger’s vision of the story may be cloudy, his vision of the stage is spot-on. He makes the absolute most of his tiny piece of real estate, and he isn’t afraid to turn his actors’ backs to the audience to serve the feeling of realness he’s attempting to create.
He commits a brilliant bit of staging midway through Act 2. The script calls for Amanda and Elyot to dance blissfully at an imaginary party, but Habeger has instead choreographed it as a wicked pas de deux. As they come together, arms raised to clasp one another, Elyot instead whacks her on the behind. On their next move, Amanda returns the favor. It’s a perfect illustration of the violence that lurks beneath even their most loving moments.
Habeger also does well as an actor in his role as the frumpy, serious Victor. He displays a tremendous sense of moral correctness and seems truly to love the headstrong Amanda.
Heather Heath as Amanda, Robin Bloodworth as Elyot and Shelby Hofer as Sybil also deliver solid performances. To her credit, Hofer has found a way to tone down the often-shrill Sybil, though she sometimes takes her delivery so far she throws away lines altogether. Heath and Bloodworth in the lead roles possess excellent comic timing but are more convincing fighters than lovers.
Again, that probably stems from the director’s vision: A man can’t cut much of a romantic figure while making silly voices and wearing a shabby bathrobe. By modernizing the play, Habeger has also stripped away some of the essence of all Coward characters: sophistication. Without their gowns and grand pianos, Elyot and Amanda aren’t nearly as much fun to watch.
8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 7 p.m. Sundays. $16 Fridays and Saturdays; $10 Thursdays; $12 Sundays. Through April 2. PushPush Theater, 121 New St., Decatur. 404-377-6332, www.pushpushtheater.com.
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