Double Bill: Private Lives & Hayfever

"Private Lives", conceived in Tokyo, written in Shanghai and produced in London in 1930, provided starring roles for Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Paul Scofield and Patricia Routledge brilliantly recreate Elyot and Amandathe once-married coupe who find themselves in adjacent hotel suites with their new partners on the French Coward's scintillating repartee epitomises all the glamour and sophistication of life between the wars for Society's spoilt darlings. "Hay Fever" is Coward's hilarious classic comedy of a disastrous weekend house party at the home of a famous actress, Judith Bliss (Peggy Ashcroft) and her husband, a well-known writer (Tony Britten). Their wildly ill-assorted guests include Millicent Martin, Julia Foster and Maurice Denham, making up a cast of which The Master himself would have certainly approved.