Director: Carol Mayo Jenkins
Cast: Amanda Prynne...*Tara Blau
Elyot Chase...John Craven
Victor Prynne...*Dodds Delzell
Louise...Christine Renaudin
Sibyl Chase...*Rebecca Castelli
*Member, Actors Equity Association
Run Dates:
May 23* (8:00), 24 (8:00), 30 (8:00) & 31(8:00)
June 1 (2:00) 6 (8:00), 7 (8:00), 8 (2:00), 12 (8:00), 13 (8:00) and 14 (8:00)
Optional add-ons
May 23 Free "Meet and Great" the cast after the show.
June 8 Cinna-Brunch 11:30am at Jacqueline’s High Tea, show at 2pm.
June 12 Cinna-Dinner 5:30pm at Jacqueline’s High Tea, show at 8pm.
See www.cinnadinner.org for more information
Venue for all Shows: Cinnabar Theater, 3333 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma, CA 94952
Ticket Prices:
$22 general admission
$20 seniors (62+) and students
About the Play:
Sheer erotic comedy, as delicious as it is sharp!
Honeymooning on the French Riviera, four hilariously mismatched lovers lampoon the hypocrisies and pretensions of modern social conventions and seek true love, regardless of the cost to their reputations. Once free from the "outside world", however, their inner passions and jealousies (their "private lives") consume them, leaving them trapped in an inescapable cycle of love and hate.
Private Lives remains true to Coward's lifelong commitment to the theater as a place in which to be entertained.
In 1929, on a tour of the Far East, Noel Coward was at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, waiting for a friend to join him. He went to bed early, but as soon as he had turned off the light, the idea for Private Lives came to him. By the turn of the year he was in Shanghai and, when a bout of the flu confined him to bed at the Cathay Hotel, he actually wrote the play in four days. He was just thirty.
He cabled his dear friend, Gertrude Lawrence:
HAVE WRITTEN DELIGHTFUL NEW COMEDY STOP GOOD PART FOR YOU STOP WONDERFUL ONE FOR ME STOP KEEP YOURSELF FREE FOR AUTUMN PRODUCTION
He sent her a copy and she replied:
HAVE READ NEW PLAY STOP NOTHING WRONG THAT CAN’T BE FIXED STOP GERTIE
And his reply:
THE ONLY THING THAT WILL NEED TO BE FIXED IS YOUR PERFORMANCE STOP NOEL
And so they were off on the fabulous whirlwind of success in London and, the next year, in New York. The play remains to this day a hallmark of sublime wit and sophisticated gaiety, with turbulent waters just beneath the surface. The madcap antics of the post-war generation were wearing just a little thin, the Bright Young Things were growing up. And Noel Coward, at thirty, was allowing his genius to lead him into perhaps more introspective reflections. Private Lives is a fascinating mirror ball of life as we wish it were, could be, and is. Listen to the wise one: “Were we happy in the Twenties? On the whole I think most of us were but we tried to hide it by appearing to be as blasé, world-weary and ‘jagged with sophistication’ as we possibly could. Naturally we had a lot of fun in the process.”
About the Director: Carol Mayo Jenkins is, as always, delighted to be back in Sonoma County. Last year she appeared in Cinnabar’s production of Enchanted April, an enchanted experience, indeed. She began her career as an actress as a member of the company in the early days of ACT in San Francisco. Years of Broadway and Off-Broadway in New York intervened before she returned to California for six years on the award winning television series, Fame. Carol has worked often at San Jose Rep, Seattle Rep, the Globe Theatre in San Diego, and Porchlight Theatre in Marin County. She is now on the faculty of the University of Tennessee where she most recently appeared in Major Barbara and directed Stop Kiss by Diana Son.
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