“Private Lives” at Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts, 2008
Channel: Northampton Open Media
Date: 10/08/2022

This video has been uploaded as a part of Northampton Open Media's local community media archive. Special thanks to Dann Vazquez for his work in helping to preserve this production.

NORTHAMPTON—This week, Noël Coward's Private Lives will run for its final three performances at the Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts at Smith College.

Private Lives is a 1930 romantic comedy by renowned English playwright Noël Coward. This witty study of human fallibility tells the story of divorced couple Amanda and Elyot who accidentally run into each other whilst on honeymoon with their new spouses. The pair are unavoidably drawn to each other, but the inevitable conflicts that led to their divorce soon resurface, contributing to much of the humor in the play, which is directed by Smith College junior Emma Weinstein.

Weinstein sets her production within her own original framework: an acting company returns to its old theatre after the end of World War II, and the actors decide to stage Private Lives, the play they were rehearsing before the war. As the actors transform an empty stage into the set for Private Lives, cast the roles, and put on the performance they always wanted, they can temporarily escape the grim realities of the ravaged post-war world outside the theatre.

    Victor (Lawrence O'Regan-Lloyd) and Sibyl (Abigail Milnor-Sweetser)

According to Weinstein, what inspires her is the possibility of escape during difficult times which theatre provides. "In the '30s," says Weinstein, "the world was in this terribly dark place—there was the Great Depression, there was World War II—and yet we get the funniest comedies….We get Lubitsch and Preston Sturges and Noël Coward…. I wanted to look at the play in that context….It's a very beautiful story about love, and, you know, at the same time I want to look at why we're drawn to these stories, why we need comedy, why we need to laugh at ourselves, and why we need some lightness in a time that's really dark."

Private Lives will be performed in Theatre 14 at the Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts at Smith College in Northampton from Thursday through Saturday, April 26-28, beginning at 8 pm. Tickets are available from the Smith College box office and can be purchased in person, or by calling 413.585.ARTS (2787), or ordering online at www.smith.tix.com