The Pear Theatre’s adaptation of Noel Coward’s comedy “Private Lives” opened last week in Mountain View with a fresh take on casting this classic.
In Pear’s version, running Sept. 25 through Oct. 11, artistic director Sarah Kannen Dean changed the gender of one of the main characters from female (Amanda) to male (Andrew).
The time period remains the same, the 1930s, and other than some pronoun changes in the script to align with the inclusion of a same-sex couple, director Dennis M. Lickteig said the story is true to the original.
“The script still works on that level because the conflicts are not necessarily gender specific,” he said. “They’re more relationship specific, and so even with that change, which … some could and probably will call a gimmick, it really does reinforce that relationships are universal, whether it’s a male-male or male-female.”
Lickteig said he believes Coward – who biographers have said was gay, though he never acknowledged it publicly – would be on board with the gender change.
Actor Lysander Abadia is on board as well. He plays Andrew, the role that was Amanda in the original play.
“I was so excited. I’m all about a diversity of voices on the stage,” Abadia said. “A lot of people, when they see themselves on stage, they feel validated, they feel heard and seen. So, I was excited that we were going to explore Andrew as a gay man with these other characters.”
The cast also includes Paul Araquistain as Elyot, Amanda Korkunis as Sybil and Charles Anthony as Victor.
Araquistain and Korkunis play couple Elyot and Sybil, while Abadia and Anthony play couple Andrew and Victor. Set during their respective honeymoons, a member of each couple discovers their ex is staying in the adjoining room.
“It’s like watching ‘Seinfeld’ on stage because it’s these four people who are horrible to each other, and it’s just a chance for us to watch a sitcom live on stage and just laugh along with the circumstances,” Abadia said.
Abadia added that he has never played a character as “provocative, mischievous and self-centered” as Andrew. As for his take on the other characters in the cast, Abadia described Elyot, Andrew’s ex-husband, “as controlling and stubborn,” Sybil, Elyot’s new wife, as “very conservative,” and Andrew’s husband, Victor, as someone “who’s always about the rules.”
Lickteig said the play conveys that “marriage is not an easy path for anyone.” He noted that the characters “can’t live with each other, and that’s kind of a theme that the play explores: Where does intimacy end and practicality begin?”
While exploring what the director called the “nuts and bolts” of the different relationships, the play will also lead audience members to ask themselves why certain characters are together.
And “Private Lives” will also make them laugh.
“A lot of the comedy comes from what an actor would call a ‘throwaway line,’ kind of an undercut line that really stings,” Lickteig said. “But the reality is, none of these characters are trying to be funny. They just are funny.”
For times, tickets ($46-$48) and more information, see thepear.org.
