ORAN Mor's Classic Cuts season got off to a flyer with Sandy Nelson's take on Pygmalion.
Now Jennifer Hainey (who stars here as Sybil) brings proceedings to an equally satisfying close with her pared-down adaptation of another classic comedy, Noel Coward's Private Lives.
Plot-wise, there's really very little to Coward's comedy of (appalling) manners. Divorced couple Amanda and Elyot (a seductive and radiant Selina Boyack and a charmingly humorous Richard Conlon) meet by chance on honeymoon on the French Riviera with their new spouses, Victor and Sybil (James Mackenzie and Hainey).
Their romantic spark reignited, they promptly ditch their partners and flee together to Paris to pick up the battle-of-the-sexes bickering and fighting that characterised their marriage.
A little bit of Coward can go a long way, as long as it's played well.
And so it proves here in director Susan Worsfold's production, with the four cast members turning in strong performances alive to the satire on love and marriage contained in the piece.
Boyack and Conlon exude a real chemistry during their love-hate duologues, while Hainey and Mackenzie bring to life the petty bourgeoisness of characters Coward dismissed as mere puppets to help aid the plot.
The binning of French maid Louise, along with various lines, is also barely noticeable here.
The end result is a well-staged and well-played classy revival.
As Elyot flippantly says to Amanda at one point, "We're figures of fun."
And fun is exactly what this engaging production delivers in spades.
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