“PRIVATE LIVES.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 521, 2 August 1932, Page 3

“PRIVATE LIVES.”

And a Special Supporting Programme.

Perfection in the art of entertaining is almost achieved at the Regent Theatre this week, not because of a superlatively good big picture, for Noel Coward’s “ Private Lives ” is ephemeral, if amusing, but because the programme as a whole gives a startlingly realistic cover of the world’s news, with scenic and humorous sidelights.

” is a voluptuous i clever play suitable m for a repertory theW atre. The theme « has the spice of * novelty—a divorced a brought face to H face as they arrive, Ip one with a new bride and the other j| with a new bridem groom, at. a hotel M in which they have 9 been allotted adW joining suites with ■ a common balcony, fe.. It is not a comedy m of bedroom errors, but a tragi-comecly ry of hasty divorce

“ Private Lives ” amplification of a

and hasty remarriage, with a re-sorting of partners, a flight, a pursuit, and a. daringly unconventional climax. Robert Montgomery and Norma Shearer are good boudoir types, but in the effort to make the most of these external advantages they leave too little to the imagination of the audience in the feline love-making scenes? that provide the motif of the play. Perhaps the author is chiefly at fault in drawing such a ha sty-tempered quartet together matrimonially, and for that matter there is much realism in alternate gusts of bad temper and connubial fondlings. Fortunately good humour is the leaven that makes the story so acceptable.