They're all behaving badly
The Observer
Sunday October 7, 2001
Simon Nye's Don Juan pouts wonderfully and Lindsay Duncan takes the Coward's way outSusannah Clapp
Private Lives Albery, London WC2
(Private Lives part of the total article extracted)
The most accomplished revival of the Coward centenary is guaranteed an acclaimed long run. Howard Davies's production of Private Lives - the play in which Coward pronounced Norfolk 'very flat' and suggested that some women should be beaten regularly, 'like gongs' - purrs along like a well-tended Thirties motor.
Lindsay Duncan, whose voice has more layers than a millefeuille , glaciates and crackles: she shows exactly what she thinks of 'morals' by a dip in register; the words 'jagged with sophistication' could have been written for the moment when her tone crisps up. Alan Rickman lizards away with assurance. Tim Hatley provides a design that is appropriately sumptuous, exaggerated and weird - a tower of white balconies tipping giddily in the opening scene; a smothering plush red chamber in the second. As the secondary, younger couple, Emma Fielding and Adam Godley chirrup and goggle effectively.
No one drawls or clips the ends of sentences; no one sticks their chin in the air. This is an attempt to reclaim Coward from Cowardese. It's a reclamation that makes both the perfection of the dramatist's plotting and the hermetic artificiality of his characters more apparent.
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