‘Civilised farce has creaky appeal’ – Personal Lives evaluation

As Amanda and Elyot, the divorced couple who encounter one another on their respective honeymoons and abandon their new spouses, they’re seamlessly enfolded into their roles.

Unlike the current ultra-violent Donmar manufacturing with Stephen Mangan, it is a extra civilised affair altogether.

Christopher Luscombe’s unobtrusive route permits respiration area for the actors (additionally together with Natalie Walter’s gleefully naive Sibyl and Dugald Bruce-Lockhart’s stuffed shirt Victor) to ship Coward’s pithy dialogue with cavalier grace.

The first half, set on adjoining balconies of a frost pink Normandy lodge the place Amanda first sees ex-husband Elyot in her compact mirror, is a lightfingered farce of conspicuously unlikely coincidence.

The second act, set in Amanda’s glamorous Paris house, is fantastically contrasted within the blood purple and gold Deco design, reflecting the languid decadence and impetuous ardour of their relationship.

However, the vitality dips barely right here and the motion may do with tightening up a bit, particularly given the two-minute silences the irrepressible couple impose on themselves each time arguments threaten.

But the sudden arrival of their jilted, notably youthful, spouses kicks issues up a notch.

Havers and Hodge might not be within the first flush of youth, however the inclusion of cricked necks and dodgy knees, plus Coward’s mischievous traces, give them ample alternative for self-reflective humour.

“Come and kiss me, darling, before your body rots,” says Elyot earlier than a well-choreographed combat – which ends with Amanda banging his face on the piano keyboard.