After a record-breaking season opening, Lantern Theater Company continues its 18th season with the screwball romantic comedy, Private Lives from British playwright Noël Coward, directed by the Lantern's Associate Artistic Director, Kathryn MacMillan. Known for bringing a fresh perspective to classic productions, Private Lives marks the company's first Coward play, bringing the elegance and sophistication of the golden age of Hollywood to the Lantern's stage during the holiday season.
Elyot (Ben Dibble) and Amanda (Geneviève Perrier), once a glamorous and tempestuous couple, haven't seen each other since their divorce five years ago. When they meet by chance on a hotel balcony in Deauville, their passion reignites - even though they are on their honeymoons with other people (Leonard C. Haas and K.O. DelMarcelle).
"Private Lives is wonderful material for the Lantern," says director MacMillan, who helmed the company's critically acclaimed production of Uncle Vanya last season. "Amanda and Elyot swap the sharp repartee for which Coward is justifiably celebrated, but what is sometimes overlooked about Coward's linguistic skill is how it reveals his characters' deepest inner lives, despite themselves. All that great language is driven by their intense desire for one another - and their lack of mutual understanding. To me, the play's sophistication comes not from all the champagne slugging, but from Coward's treatment of the loneliness that exists at the core of so many romantic relationships."
An award-winning creative team will create the show's Hollywood glamour, beginning with costumes designed by Mark Mariani, a 2010 Barrymore Award nominee for Outstanding Costume Design. Mariani, whose work was seen at the Lantern in The Breath of Life and Henry IV, Part I says audiences can expect to see "very well-tailored gents and very glamorous ladies. I do my best work with 20th century fashions. I love the details."
Sets are designed by Meghan Jones (Uncle Vanya), with lighting design by Barrymore Award-winner Thom Weaver (The Breath of Life, Uncle Vanya), and sound design by Barrymore Award-winner Christopher Colucci (Vigil, The Breath of Life). Fight Director J. Alex Cordaro (A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Skull in Connemara) will have his hands full with the feisty lovers' battles.
Private Lives has been highly popular since its debut in London in 1930 with a cast including the playwright and Laurence Olivier. The play moved to Broadway the following year and has seen numerous revivals around the world since, attracting actors such as Richard Burton, Alan Rickman, Elizabeth Taylor, Maggie Smith and Kim Cattrall (currently appearing in a Broadway revival). The play was also made into a film in 1931.The Lantern's cast features some of Philadelphia's most popular and critically praised actors. Barrymore Award-winner Geneviève Perrier (Skylight) brings Amanda to life. Ben Dibble, a recipient of the Barrymore Award for Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist returns to the Lantern stage (seen in La Ronde, The Taming of the Shrew) as Elyot, Amanda's ex-husband turned lover. Leonard C. Haas, lauded for his leading role in last season's Vigil, and K.O. DelMarcelle (recently seen in The Diary of Anne Frank at EgoPo) play Victor and Sybil, the newlyweds scorned by their new spouses. DelMarcelle makes her Lantern debut with this role, while Haas takes a look at the production from a different angle, having played Elyot in the Arden's 1998 production. Jessica Bedford, also in her Lantern debut, corrals the chaos as Amanda's Parisian maid, Louise. About the Playwright2011/12 Season
Lantern Theater Company continues its 2011/12 season with The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, adapted and performed by Anthony Lawton (February 7 - 12, 2012); William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, directed by Charles McMahon (March 1 - April 1, 2012); and The Island, written by Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona, and directed by Peter DeLaurier (May 17 - June 10, 2012).
Tickets: Phone: (215) 829-0395
Online: www.lanterntheater.org
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