Private Lives finds Rickman and Duncan playing brittle, witty lovers who wreak havoc on the lives of the people around them. The play famously begins with the best-known balcony scene since Romeo and Juliet, as Elyot and Amanda, once husband and wife, meet unexpectedly on the first nights of their respective honeymoons. It only takes a few martinis and some potent cheap music from the hotel orchestra to send the couple speeding away from their new spouses and toward a flat in Paris. This Private Lives, a transfer from London's Albery Theatre, is directed by Howard Davies.
— By Christine Ehren