History has been changed when creative people stay somewhere longer than they had intended. 

At the beginning of World War II, when Britain fought Italy, renowned educator Maria Montessori and her son were visiting India. Suddenly,  they were interned as enemy aliens. They posed no threat to the Raj. So their captivity was eased and they were permitted large freedom of travel and activity throughout  India. One result is that Montessori schools now  abound in India, Pakistan and Bangla Desh.

A similar exile (financial in origin) now enlivens the Swannanoa, NC Playhouse, ten miles east of Asheville, just south of Interstate Highway 40 East, exit 59.

In mid 2000 actor Scott Shannon reconfigured a rambling one story commercial property into a future dinner theater. This was to be a memorial to his recently deceased actress wife. Shannon attracted a small group of actors to Swannanoa to work with him. He advertised lavishly and when his doors opened, he soon won over and kept a devoted cadre of local theater buffs. Still, attendance did not take off  and Mr Shannon gave up his project.

The actors, staff and key supporters remained in place, with claims to unpaid wages. They have sub-leased and reopened the Playhouse. The new group calls itself UPSTAGED. One way or another each is active in the current production of Noel Coward’s classic PRIVATE LIVES.

PRIVATE LIVES is a tale of four singularly repellent  early 20th Century Britons. Two, Elyot and Amanda, were once briefly married to each other. Elyot is now married to Sibyl, Amanda to Victor. Both newly wed couples have, by sheer coincidence, booked themselves into the same hotel in France for their honeymoons. Their rooms are side by side. Act One plays on the balcony between the rooms. Elyot and Amanda, for no particularly convincing reasons, discover that they remain in love and that their divorces and remarriages were dreadful mistakes. They  therefore decide to decamp for Amanda’s flat in Paris, where the Second Act takes place. There they finally overcome their mixture of lust and boredom by physical violence. During the melee they are walked in on by their jilted mates, Victor and Sibyl. The latter announce that they too are in love and will marry after a decent interval. They then fall to quarreling while Elyot and Amanda pick up their bags and go quietly off into the sunset--together. 

There is no evidence that any of the four characters works for a living. Yet none lacks for money. There is little concern for ethics or religion (though Elyot says that Catholics would o.k. his  rekindled lust for Amanda because they believe that the couple’s divorce was invalid.)

Four nasty, selfish, stupid people are charmingly  dissected by Noel Coward in language that sparkles while it pricks pretensions. Louise Martin plays Amanda, Elyot’s first wife. Her  diction is crisp, her gestures on target. Elyot is played by a notably younger but no less deft Jeff Messer, a familiar face at one time to Western North Carolina audiences.

Ailie Holland as Sybil does her education proud (1988 graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama). She has also played in more than 35 pieces since 1990. As the puritanical, censorious Victor, Tracy Teague Hackney proves the value of his recent  UNCA Asheville Acting/Directing degree. 

There is also a small comic part for a French speaking maid, Louise. All four leading actors wear their British accents lightly. They also work well together and are sparsely directed by Christopher Ray Allison. Kelly Kirkpatrick’s period stage design sets off actors and words pretty close to perfection.

Maria Montessori had no choice but to spend years in India. If viewers want UPSTAGED to stay in the SWANNANOA PLAYHOUSE they must lend them their ears and buy tickets. That will be time and money very well spent. 

For information phone 828-271-9098.

-OOO-

For INDEPENDENT TORCH