“what’s revelatory about this production is how complex the characters are. The personas that Amanda and Elyot have created for their new spouses in the first scene crumble when they see their exes.

And over the next hour and a half, Davies and Peacock are so believably enmeshed as a couple – they know, love and hate each other’s idiosyncrasies – that it’s a delight to simply watch them together.”

“The performances Perloff has elicited are refreshingly down-to-earth, however. None of that debonair posturing, the artificial old-mannered acting styles that can drag down Coward productions.

Peacock is superb as Amanda – a rich and aimless woman who nevertheless nurses a deep sadness that apparently only Elyot and his tempers can assuage. The actor’s line deliveries are fresh and funny, but there’s always a beating heart underneath.

Wyn Davies, meanwhile, isn’t afraid to play Elyot as a violent misogynist. “I should like to cut off your head with a meat axe,” he shouts at Sibyl, no Cowardian charm to couch it.”

“Coward’s attack on the sexual stereotypes of the time is nowhere clearer than when Elyot informs Amanda that it doesn’t suit women to be promiscuous. “It doesn’t suit men for women to be promiscuous,” Amanda shoots back, drawing applause and cheers.

As Amanda, Peacock is everything audiences have come to expect over her years in Stratford, not so much delivering lines as thoroughly being Amanda. Her fine work ensures that even the most subtle humour isn’t missed, like when Vincent asks if she loves him. “Of course, that’s why I’m here,” is the coldly insensitive response.

Shara gives the production one of its best performances, playing Victor with perfect stiff pomposity. A momentary pause and almost imperceptible tilt of the head frequently restrains his emotions before he gathers himself to speak. “I’m glad to be normal,” he declares early in the play, not long before he pauses to adjust a vase of flowers on the table with a quarter-turn.”

“The first act of Noël Coward’s Private Lives ranks amongst the tautest, funniest, impeccably presented bits of theatre ever seen at the Stratford Festival…

Alas, after the interval, where the suddenly reunited Amanda and Elyot have resumed their relationship after a five-year hiatus (being only married for three years sounds a false note in Coward’s backstory), are seen in a Paris flat learning how to bicker in style all over again. Except in this iteration, both are wise enough to develop a “time out” code that may well keep them from Divorce Court II.

There are still many fun moments (notably past music keeping the lovers’ flames burning bright—at times ably accompanied by Wyn Davies’ not inconsiderable piano skills), but the forward momentum sags compared to the opening salvo.”

“As New Yorker critic John Lahr called Private Lives, reviewing a 2011 New York City production starring Paul Gross and Kim Cattrall, it is “a plotless play about purposeless people” — a compliment that cements the play as a “high-camp masterpiece” and Coward as definitive camp icon.

At Stratford, Carey Perloff’s production recognizes the particular appeal of a piece of high-camp theatre, pairing the equally delightful duo of Lucy Peacock and Geraint Wyn Davies…”

“Mike Shara is perfect as Victor – he has genuinely fallen for Amanda, and then sees his fears realized when she goes back to Elyot. Sophia Walker, as Sybil, creates comedy with her concerns about Elyot’s love for her, but goes over the top with her crying. Sarah Dodd is hilarious as the maid, Louise, in her all-too-brief appearances.”