Private Lives (2023 Independent Shakespeare Company 2023 Production) Theatre Review

The Independent Shakespeare Company is known for its wonderful summer performances of Shakespeare’s works in Griffith Park. But the company also has an intimate indoor space where it puts on productions throughout the year, and where its repertoire sometimes moves outside of the plays of Shakespeare. The company is currently performing Noel Coward’s Private Lives, taking the 1930 comedy and setting it in the late 1950s, moving the action from France to Acapulco and Palm Springs. The production stars Melissa Chalsma and David Melville as the divorced couple Amanda and Elyot, and Brent Charles and Asha Noel Iyer as their respective new spouses, Victor and Sibyl. When the newlyweds end up in adjacent rooms at the same hotel on their honeymoons, all of the emotions – but positive and negative – that Amanda and Elyot once felt for each other re-emerge.

Before the performance begins, we hear the sounds of the beach, the waves gently coming in. The set for the first act is fairly simple, the space divided in half, each half containing identical chairs and a table, showing the terraces of two hotel rooms. Elyot and Sybil are the first couple we meet, occupying the stage left space. When Sybil asks her husband if he’s happy, David Melville’s hilarious delivery of “Tremendously happy” shows that he’s not really all that happy. But happiness doesn’t seem to be what he’s looking for in this relationship. As he soon says, he wants a love that is “undramatic,” one that is “cozy” and without jealousy. Unfortunately for him, Sibyl does seem to be jealous of the intimacy he once shared with Amanda, and cannot help herself but continue to probe him about that relationship. It is as if she doesn’t feel secure in her new marriage, and feels a need not only to show her husband that she is the better catch, but to hear him say that she is. David Melville will of course be familiar to anyone who has attended Independent Shakespeare Company productions before, and his comic timing and sensibilities are well-known, and put to splendid use here. But this is Asha Noel Iyer’s first time performing with the company. And she gives a wonderful performance. The way she pronounces Amanda’s name whenever she speaks of her is delightful, stressing the second syllable and hitting the consonants. At one point she agrees not to mention Amanda again, and then without even the slightest of pauses, immediately asks Elyot about their honeymoon. So she is quite capable of holding her own on stage with Melville.

When Victor enters, he comes running onto the stage, as if from the beach. Brent Charles recently turned in an excellent performance as both Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse in Live At The Porpentine, the company’s film adaptation of The Comedy Of Errors, and here does another wonderful job as Victor. And of course Melissa Chalsma is fantastic as Amanda. In this production, her line about the material being “very rough” refers to Victor’s beach towel, which is around his neck. And her line “Several places,” in answer to Victor’s question about her being struck by Elyot, has a playfully sexual tone. There are hints that Elyot and Amanda’s marriage had a volatile element or nature to it, with both parties being at fault. And so we begin to understand Elyot’s desire for a relationship without drama. And it seems that Amanda has sought out the same. When Victor asks her, “Do you remember when I first met you,” her “Yes” comes after a moment of searching for the memory, which is funny. He is behind her at that moment and so doesn’t see her expression. But in that moment, it is clear that theirs is not a deep, striking or passionate love. The audience knows that these two should not be together, any more than Elyot and Sibyl should be. But should Elyot and Amanda be back together? From what the audience has heard, it seems the answer is likely No, though they are probably more suited for each other.

Amanda says, “It’s chance that we’re here,” and then “Everything that happens is chance.” That is a key idea here, for chance has put the two couples not only in the same hotel at the same time, but in adjacent rooms. This also speaks to the rather dim, or at least light, view the play has about marriage, about relationships. Is it only chance that brings Amanda and Elyot back together again? It seems so, and the text basically says as much. Though when Elyot and Amanda find themselves out on their respective terraces at the same time, they have the same drinks. Chance? Amanda’s reaction when she sees Elyot is fantastic. When Elyot tries to convince Sibyl to leave the hotel, he says, “We can have our first night together in Santa Monica,” a line that gets a big laugh from the Los Angeles audience. That is of course a change from the text’s “first night together in Paris.” And when Sibyl tells Elyot that there is nothing there that can explode, he glances to where Amanda was and says, “Oh, isn’t there?” Another hint of the volatile nature of their relationship. And of course a funny moment. Amanda’s “taking the body home to England” becomes “body home to Cleveland” in this production. As Amanda and Elyot stand in their respective spots, smoking, the audience gets a strong sense of what their marriage was like. The clear division between hotel rooms acts also as a clear division in their relationship. Though Amanda soon breaks it by moving to his side.

The action moves to an apartment in Palm Springs, with Elyot on the couch and Amanda on the carpet in front of him. There is a piano stage left, and a record player upstage. Interestingly, the record that is visible next to the player is Frank Sinatra’s 1957 album Where Are You? The title track to that album contains the line, “Where is that happy ending?” and for a moment it seems that this couple will have their happy ending. (That album also contains the song, “I’m A Fool To Want You.” So there.) They’ve even concocted a plan to keep their arguments from escalating, using the code word “Jackson Pollock” to initiate a short period of silence (in the text, it is “Solomon Isaacs”). But it isn’t long before they are using that code word. And it isn’t long before they are talking about Victor and Sibyl, which is interesting because Sibyl and Victor earlier couldn’t help but talk about Amanda and Elyot. And soon Victor and Sibyl arrive, and that image of the four of them crowded together on the couch is delightful. Noriani Estevez brings more light into the room as Louise, the maid, in this production speaking Spanish instead of French. This is her first performance with the Independent Shakespeare Company. And though much of what happens is hilarious, there are some serious moments which help bring the audience in closer, such as when Victor calmly tells Amanda that he is there in order “To find out what you want me to do” and when he tells her: “You never loved me. I see that now.” Those quite, calm, human moments are in contrast to much of what occurs. But interestingly, we see that Victor and Sibyl are beginning down a path quite similar to that which Amanda and Elyot have been navigating. Are we all doomed to follow such a destructive pattern?

This production of Private Lives was directed by Nikhil Pai. Performances run through May 7, 2023, and there is one intermission, which comes at the end of Act I. Visit the Independent Shakespeare Company’s website for the complete schedule and more information. The theatre is located at 3191 Casitas Ave. in Los Angeles, California. There is a free parking lot next to the theatre, so parking is not a problem.