Theatre Royal, Brighton – until 16th April 2022
Reviewed by Sue Bradley
4****
When the lead actors in a production are as familiar as Nigel Havers and Patricia Hodge, there are good odds that you are in for a classy evening and, tonight, our bets were well placed.
A divorced couple, newly re-married to new partners, find that their respective honeymoon suites are in adjoining rooms at a hotel on the French Riviera. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for each other. This, despite their both opining, separately, that they are “two nasty acids bubbling around in a matrimonial bottle”.
Nigel Havers (Coronation Street, Chariots of Fire) is Elyot and Patricia Hodge (Downton Abbey, Calendar Girls etc.) is Amanda.
Dugald Bruce-Lockhart brings Victor, Amanda’s uptight and dull new husband, to life and provides a fine foil for Sybil (Elyot’s new wife), played skilfully by Natalie Walter, who starts as sweetly naïve but eventually shows her mettle. Aïcha Kossoko played the much put-upon Louise, the French Maid, with impeccable language skills and humour.
For the first half, a simple and elegant set located us firmly in an old-style luxury seafront hotel whilst Acts 2 and 3 take us to the restrained opulence of a Paris flat. The cast – all seeming perfectly at home in their roles – carried us through the barbs, jokes and recriminations with a confidence that made the time fly by.
In this classic Coward ‘Comedy of Manners’ we have all the sharp, and sometimes scathing, wit we have come to expect and, although written in the 1930’s, the observations on how couples interact are as fresh and relevant today as they were nearly 90 years ago. Interestingly, Coward himself took the lead role of Elyot, now played by Nigel Havers, in the original Edinburgh King’s Theatre production which then transferred to a successful run in the West End.
Although very definitely a comedy and Patricia Hodge’s comic timing, in particular, is immaculate, this is also a masterclass in flippancy as a mechanism to mask and avoid serious and passionate feelings.
This is the first offering from Nigel Havers’ newly formed eponymous theatre company and, if tonight was anything to go by, future productions will be keeping us similarly entertained.
Currently, the world of theatre is somewhat dominated by musicals and it is a real pleasure to enjoy an evening where all the drama is in the dialogue – you will need to keep your wits about you as the dialogue zips along at top speed, but it will more than repay the effort of your attention and concentration.
I suspect most couples will go home with smiles of wry recognition and there will be more than a few “isn’t that a bit like us?” moments.