the next production at Beckenham Theatre will be:
~PRIVATE LIVES~
by Noel Coward
directed by Sarah Mann

performance dates: Monday 22nd - Saturday 27th March 2010

• Andrew Bowes
• Kimberly Datnow
• Paula Alcalde Nosti
• Clare Spencer
• Darren Walker
  

"I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives."
- Noel Coward, 1929

Private Lives is Noel Coward's classic comedy of manners. After brief courtships and lightning weddings, a divorced couple find themselves reunited by the adjoining balconies of their honeymoon suites.

Originally performed by Coward himself and his muse, Gertrude Lawrence, this intimate play provides the opportunity for a small group actors to explore the style and character of the 1930s period.

In response to last year's revival at the Hampstead Theatre, the BBC reported:

"Today's theatre-going public may be used to Mark Ravenhill-style shock tactics but Noel Coward's Private Lives must have unnerved audiences when it was first performed in 1931. The comedy tells the tale of a divorced couple, Elyot and Amanda who meet again after five years while they are both on honeymoon with their new spouses. They fall in love all over again and with just a cursory thought for their unfortunate partners, Sybil and Victor, they elope to Amanda's flat in gay Paree. It may be a rather flimsy plot based on an incredulous coincidence but it hardly matters - the joy here is in the witty dialogue and the comedic possibilities in almost every exchange."

Private Lives will be running concurrently at the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End. Please note: Kim Cattrall and Matthew Macfadyen will not be appearing in the BTC version, but then our tickets don't cost upwards of £30 each!

Private Lives is Beckenham Theatre's entry in the Bromley Theatre Guild Festival, and adjudication will take place after the performance on Thursday 25th March.

Tickets cost £8.00 (£6.00 concs) to members and their guests
and are available from the Box Office on 07905 744991.

Private Lives
(Bromley Theatre Guild Festival entry)

Lost in Yonkers
(Kent Drama Association Festival entry)

Children's Production (title tbc)

Cold Comfort Farm (tbc)

The Country Wife

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change (tbc)

Panto Pandomonium (Youth Group) (tbc)

Mother Goose (tbc)