The tangled “private lives” of divorced but ultimately reunited couple Amanda and Elyot, in Noël Coward’s “Private Lives,” are almost shockingly physical in director KJ Sanchez’s production. This American Conservatory Theater season opener of the arch, 1930 comedy feels unexpectedly fresh and exuberant. It whizzes by, getting better—funnier and deeper and more surprising—act by act.
Two newlywed couples—Amanda and Victor; Sibyl and Elyot—find themselves honeymooning in adjacent rooms at the same hotel. Amanda and Elyot, divorced five years ago because they simply couldn’t get along, quickly realize they’re still madly in love and run away together to hide out in her apartment, callously leaving behind their new spouses.
It’s fair enough for audiences to wonder, initially, why director Sanchez transported the play–which Coward set at a hotel in France in Act 1, and in Amanda’s Parisian apartment in Acts 2 and 3 —to a hotel in Argentina, and later to Amanda’s apartment in Montevideo.
Along with the change in locale in Sanchez’s rendition, the Coward-written tunes usually added to the show are now Latin melodies (not counting a Beethoven symphony) mostly played on a windup victrola.
But as the play progresses — and as the couples dance the tango while conversing, while arguing, while flirting, while having complete meltdowns — it becomes clear the ways in which this particular dance allows full expressions of the characters’ inner emotions in ways that mere clever dialogue cannot. That’s reason enough to relocate the setting in a play that can seem too clever, too superficial by half.
That’s what’s so wonderful about this Coward classic in its new setting: It allows these four Brits to unleash their inner, fiery souls full-on. All elements coalesce: tango instructor Lisette Perelle’s playful, dramatic choreography, Scott Bolman’s ever-changing lights that reflect the equally ever-changing dynamics among the characters, Jake Rodriguez’s rich sound design and scenic designer Tanya Orellana’s charming, fern-filled hacienda in Act 1 and an elegant and airy apartment after. Here, it feels natural for the characters to fully express their fury and their passion.
And it’s glorious, and hilarious, to see the way Sarita Ocón, as the flamboyant Amanda, throws her amazingly rubbery body over the furniture, and how Hugo E. Carbajal’s Elyot croons a song in Spanish or flings himself on the floor in despair.
And how the spurned lovers, a determinedly perky, ultimately rageful Gianna DiGregorio Rivera (in Act 1 wearing an eyesore of a shocking-yellow gown; witty costumes by Jessie Omoroso), and Brady Morales-Woolery’s awkward, long-suffering Victor, let loose in the final act and totally inhabit their bodies. (An enraged Victor gearing up to fight his laconic rival, Elyot, is especially funny.)
There’s plenty of stuff to parse here among the laughs. The chemistry between the two main characters rings true in the acting and Coward’s writing, as do their moments of facing their own doubts and selfishness. Nor is it at all clear, even at the end, whether these two headstrong, stubborn types can ever really get along.
American Conservatory Theater’s “Private Lives” continues through Oct. 6 at the Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Tickets are $25-$130 at act-sf.org.
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