Private Lives, Swan Theatre Amateur Company, Swan Theatre, Worcester

Feb 21 2008 By John Slim

THE performance of Julie Nunn as Amanda in this Noel Coward classic is quite remarkable, in that it is deliberately theatrical and melodramatic and left me, for one, wondering whether to praise her for sustaining it so unfalteringly or to complain that it is too much for too long.

She has a wild expressiveness in her face, an armoury of extravagance in her gestures, a shrill delivery and the ability to change in a trice from a raging tigress to a repentent kitten or a silly little girl.

She is difficult to keep up with, but this is the demand she makes of the audience in Brian Burton's absorbing production.

Opposite her, as Elyot, the other half of the cat-and-dog confrontations that Coward has so carefully engineered, John Horton is to be praised for reproducing the Coward attitude without adopting the tiresomely affected Coward delivery.

The pair of them achieve a splendidly stylised, silent opening to the second act, sitting at a table behind their cigarette holders. And the breakfast scene that comes later is another gentle joy.

There is ample cause to give thanks for a wordy evening that is so successfully steered to its conclusion.

The production runs until Saturday.