Noel Coward's fine-spun comedy concerning the explosive chemistry within two married couples holidaying in the south of France will just about satisfy the Master's devotees, despite occasionally failing to spark in this production by The Hatherley Players at the Playhouse Theatre, Cheltenham.

Shirley Burgess as a delightfully dippy Sybil is the chief ray of light.

Simon Lewis

Having divorced five years previously, Amanda Prynne and Elyot Chase suddenly find themselves sharing adjacent hotel rooms with their respective new spouses, and where the very antagonism which originally drove them apart prompts a rekindling of the old matrimonial flames.

Indecent haste

With renewed intimacy and almost indecent haste they decamp for Paris, leaving their bewildered better halves frantically following on behind.

Unfortunately, some of the play's wittiest lines are also left gasping for air as co-director Rod Holliman rather stifles the role of Elyot, giving a somewhat lacklustre performance in which at times he is barely audible.

He becomes decidedly more convincing during the deliciously frothy squabbles which ultimately keep this particular pot from going irretrievably off the boil and dying a slow death through lack of pace.

Delightfully dippy

A simple but effective Riviera hotel balcony is transformed into an exquisitely furnished Paris apartment.

Simon Lewis

Shirley Burgess as a delightfully dippy Sybil is the chief ray of light, especially during the dimly-lit first act which is suffused with an excessively dark aquamarine wash.

Holliman's co-director Geoffrey Jackson and Diana Brown provide some backbone as the earthy and honest Prynnes, and while "poor dull Victor" isn't the most colourful of characters, Jackson's portrayal still hovers precariously between the amusing and the anaemic.

Sufficient fizz

Yet while some champagne corks get stuck in the bottle, the re-assembled ménage à quatre injects sufficient fizz into the final act to redeem the earlier lack of sparkle. Not, however, before Jackie Smith as beleaguered maid Louise has enjoyed one glorious moment before succumbing to a lethal overdose of the French language.

Top honours go to set designers Doug Hale and David Holtham who ensure that a simple but effective Riviera hotel balcony is transformed into an exquisitely furnished Paris apartment.

In the end, it more or less stays afloat, but there's no denying that it needs some extra impetus to bring it fully to life.

Review by Simon Lewis

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