Private Lives - Guthrie Theater - August 2026

Private Lives

Program Cover

By Noel Coward

Review by Ernest Edwards

The Guthrie Theater is concluding their 2025/2026 with the Noel Coward comedy Private Lives at the Wurtele Thrust Stage. 

This comedy is delicious. It’s got some bite to it. You can definitely sink your teeth into this one. I was at last nights production. It was such a fun night at the theatre for me. 

The play was first produced in 1930. The language and situations still feel timeless. 

While their house is open, there is a piano player (Brad Beahan) on top of the two story scenery. He interacts with the audience between songs. It helps to get us in the mood before the play begins. 

The story is centered around two couples on their honeymoon at a hotel in Deauville. The first couple we see is

The stage, before the play begins. 

 Elyot Chase (played by William Connell) and his wife Sibyl Chase (played by Nikki Massoud). The second couple we see is Victor Prynne (played by Dustin Bronson) and his wife Amanda Prynne (played by Laura Odeh). We learn as the play progresses that the couples who share an outdoor terrace, have history together. Elyot and Amanda were once married to each other, and have been divorced for five years. Both are newly married, celebrating their nuptials at the same hotel with neighboring rooms. Is fate playing a game? Once they both realize what is going on, Elyot and Amanda both try to convince their spouses to leave and go to Paris, without specifying that their ex spouse is in the room next door. While their spouses are out, Amanda and Elyot begin to reminisce. They flee to Amanda’s apartment in Paris. One of my favorite moments of the play was watching the Terrace transform into Amanda’s Parisian apartment. It was pure stage magic and a great way to end the first act. 

The second and third acts take place in Amanda’s Parisian apartment. Amanda and Elyot are both

The stage, for the second half of the play. 

enjoying the bliss of being together again, and also get under each other’s skin. The second act ends with the arrival of Sybil and Victor standing in the doorway of the apartment. 

I love the conclusion of the play. At first it seems like Amanda and Elyot are through with each other, and their spouses will be divorcing them. As Victor and Sybil begin to argue, Amanda and Elyot slowly exit together and leave these two to argue on their own. 

Noel Coward has such a way with language and comedy. I never knew Noel Coward also appeared in his own plays. That was a fun fact to read from the program. This play is simply magnificent. 

Need to make mention of the scenery designed by Alexander Doge and the costumes designed by Meg Neville. Along with the script and the cast, those two design elements really helped bring the show together. 

Photo by Dan Norman. 

For a fun night of comedy, I recommend catching Private Lives at The Guthrie Theater before it closes on August 23, 2026. Check out www.guthrietheater.org for tickets.