[NEohioPAL]1 more RAVE for PRIVATE LIVES at Actors' Summit

Mon Nov 5 13:12:08 PST 2001

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Published Monday, November 5, 2001, in the <A HREF="http://www.ohio.com/bj/about_the_beacon/docs/newsstaff.html">Akron Beacon Journal</A>.

This `Private Lives' merits voyeurism

Actors' Summit production of Coward has giddy charm
BY <A HREF="mailto:cbloom at thebeaconjournal.com">CONNIE BLOOM</A> 
Beacon Journal staff writer 
       Private Lives is generally regarded as Noel Coward's finest play. The 
British comedy has had three successful runs on Broadway, the earliest 
featuring the inescapable talents of Lawrence Olivier and Gertrude Lawrence, 
and later, the thundering duo of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
       In fact, Coward wrote the piece in the '30s as an apology to Lawrence 
for firing her from his operetta Bitter Sweet, and the two of them performed 
it for 12 weeks on Broadway.

       The story surrounds Elyot and Amanda Chase, sophisticates who were 
once married to each other but now are on honeymoons on the French Riviera 
with their second spouses. 
       As they pour martinis on the balcony of their adjoining hotel room, 
they discover this alarming coincidence, as well as the smoldering embers of 
their former passion, and decide to take off together, leaving their new 
spouses behind.
       The collateral damage is spectacular, but they pay no respect to their 
consciences. They feed off their sexual energy and soon rediscover the flash 
points that leveled their relationship the first time.
       The plot thickens when their new spouses, now a couple, show up.
       Maryann Nagel and A. Neil Thackaberry make Amanda's and Elyot's myriad 
and conflicting emotions keenly felt in the Actors' Summit production, which 
runs through Sunday in the company's new facility in downtown Hudson. 
Coward's frenetic repartee and verbal jousts roll off their tongues. They 
electrify the audience with their body language and horrify when they come to 
physical blows, while questions of normalcy, hypocrisy and morality rise to 
the surface.
       Thackaberry is artistic director and founder of Actors' Summit, a 
professional company. Nagel is married in real life to Greg Violand, whose 
character, the rigid Victor, is at one point called ``a raging gas bag.''
       The quintessential twit, Victor drops his formal veneer when he is 
ultimately pushed too far, and he explodes in a thermonuclear rage.
       Tanya Beckman plays the sappy Sibyl, whose stare of dumbstruck 
surprise keeps members of the audience tittering and whose crying fits have 
them howling.
       People who think they need to go to New York to see a decent show are 
sadly mistaken. Actors' Summit delivers an evening of giddy charm and 
first-rate theater right here in River City, with no detail overlooked.
       Maryjo Alexander gets the nod both as director and costumer, with an 
intensely paced production that turns heads with its costumes.

Connie Bloom is an Akron Beacon Journal staff writer. You can reach her at 
330-996-3568 or <A HREF="mailto:cbloom at thebeaconjournal.com">cbloom at thebeaconjournal.com</A>.

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<HTML>Published Monday, November 5, 2001, in the <A HREF="http://www.ohio.com/bj/about_the_beacon/docs/newsstaff.html">Akron Beacon Journal</A>. 
 
 
 This `Private Lives' merits voyeurism
 
 Actors' Summit production of Coward has giddy charm
 BY <A HREF="mailto:cbloom at thebeaconjournal.com">CONNIE BLOOM</A> 
 Beacon Journal staff writer 
       Private Lives is generally regarded as Noel Coward's finest play. The British comedy has had three successful runs on Broadway, the earliest featuring the inescapable talents of Lawrence Olivier and Gertrude Lawrence, and later, the thundering duo of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
       In fact, Coward wrote the piece in the '30s as an apology to Lawrence for firing her from his operetta Bitter Sweet, and the two of them performed it for 12 weeks on Broadway.
 
       The story surrounds Elyot and Amanda Chase, sophisticates who were once married to each other but now are on honeymoons on the French Riviera with their second spouses. 
       As they pour martinis on the balcony of their adjoining hotel room, they discover this alarming coincidence, as well as the smoldering embers of their former passion, and decide to take off together, leaving their new spouses behind.
       The collateral damage is spectacular, but they pay no respect to their consciences. They feed off their sexual energy and soon rediscover the flash points that leveled their relationship the first time.
       The plot thickens when their new spouses, now a couple, show up.
       Maryann Nagel and A. Neil Thackaberry make Amanda's and Elyot's myriad and conflicting emotions keenly felt in the Actors' Summit production, which runs through Sunday in the company's new facility in downtown Hudson. Coward's frenetic repartee and verbal jousts roll off their tongues. They electrify the audience with their body language and horrify when they come to physical blows, while questions of normalcy, hypocrisy and morality rise to the surface.
       Thackaberry is artistic director and founder of Actors' Summit, a professional company. Nagel is married in real life to Greg Violand, whose character, the rigid Victor, is at one point called ``a raging gas bag.''
       The quintessential twit, Victor drops his formal veneer when he is ultimately pushed too far, and he explodes in a thermonuclear rage.
       Tanya Beckman plays the sappy Sibyl, whose stare of dumbstruck surprise keeps members of the audience tittering and whose crying fits have them howling.
       People who think they need to go to New York to see a decent show are sadly mistaken. Actors' Summit delivers an evening of giddy charm and first-rate theater right here in River City, with no detail overlooked.
       Maryjo Alexander gets the nod both as director and costumer, with an intensely paced production that turns heads with its costumes.
 
 Connie Bloom is an Akron Beacon Journal staff writer. You can reach her at 330-996-3568 or <A HREF="mailto:cbloom at thebeaconjournal.com">cbloom at thebeaconjournal.com</A>.
 
 
 
 
 
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