Stageworks closes its 2007-08 season with Noel Coward's 1930 comedy standard, Private Lives. The play satirizes the institution of marriage via Amanda and Elyot, a high-society couple who divorce, remarry and somehow end up in adjoining rooms while on their respective honeymoons. Despite a history of near-constant bickering, the duo soon realizes that even though they can't live with each other, they sure as hell can't live without each other, and in brilliant old-school hijinks style, they decide to run away together to Paris. But resuming their volatile romance isn't easy, especially when the spurned spouses arrive on their doorstep demanding answers. July 10-27, 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 4 p.m. Sun., Shimberg Playhouse-Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, downtown Tampa, $10 preview (July 10)/$24.50 general ($10 rush tickets available to students, seniors and military 30 minutes before curtain), 813-259-7827, stageworkstheater.com.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2008.