Private Lives
A 1930 comedy of manners by Noël Coward [1]. An immensely popular musical comedy originally written for Gertrude Lawrence, and produced in 1930 with Coward and Laurence Olivier. It was Coward's most enduringly successful work and is generally regarded as the high point of his career both commercially and artistically.
Performance history in South Africa
Margaret Inglis and Robert Langford the play in 19**, starring Robert himself and Shelagh Holliday. In 1953 Minna Millsten directed a Johannesburg Reps production, starring Marjorie Gordon.
Opened at the Durban Jewish Club on 2 July 1968, directed by Frank Shelley, for NAPAC. Cast Erica Rogers, later replaced by Valerie Miller, Danvers Walker, Moira Waldron, and Ian Hamilton.
Directed by Peter Curtis for CAPAB in 1978. Settings by Peter Krummeck, costumes Jennifer Craig, lighting John T. Baker. The cast included Helen Bourne, John Whiteley, Mary Dreyer, Liz Dick and Peter Cartwright.
In 1988 the play was presented by Pieter Toerien, opening 18 March in the Leonard Rayne Theatre, starring Sandra Duncan, Philip Godawa, Vanessa Cooke, Neville Thomas and Eleni Cousins, directed by Robert Whitehead.
Staged by Pieter Toerien Productions at the Grahamstown Festival in 2002, directed by Maralin Vanrenen, with Suanne Braun, Warren Kimmel, Alexandra Bairnsfather Cloete, James van Helsdingen and Elise van Niekerk. Sets by Keith Anderson, costumes by Bronwyn Lovegrove and Margo Fleisch, lighting by Jannie Swanepoel. The same production was presented at the Montecasino Theatre in July 2002 and subsequently at Theatre on the Bay.
Translations and adaptations
Sources
Grütter, Wilhelm, CAPAB 25 Years, 1987. Unpublished research. p 90.
Teater SA, 1(1), 1968.
Brooke 1978.
Private Lives theatre programmes, 1978, 2002.
See How They Run theatre programme, 1988.
Tucker, 1997.
EP Herald, 5 July 2002.
The Star, 22 July 2002.
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