Introduction

Private Lives is a comedy of manners by English playwright, composer, and actor Noël Coward. The play, which opened in London in 1930 and was adapted into a film in 1931, is a social satire on the frailties of marriage and pretensions of high society.

Five years after their divorce, Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne have married new spouses; the two couples accidentally book the same hotel in France for their respective second honeymoons. Realizing that they are still in love with each other, the exes abandon their new spouses to rekindle their volatile romance which quickly devolves into their familiar patterns of excessive love and hate. Elyot and Amanda exchange witticisms, barbs, and blows as they retreat to a Paris apartment and anticipate the confrontation with their jilted spouses. The play explores The Façade of Civility, The Defiance of Rigid Gender Roles, and Flippancy as Social Critique. The work has since become a regular in theatre repertoires with multiple revivals in the West End and Broadway and numerous media adaptations.

This guide refers to the 2013 Bloomsbury, Methuen Publishing Limited Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of physical abuse.

Plot Summary

In Act 1, newlyweds Sibyl and Elyot Chase are on their honeymoon at an upscale hotel in Deauville, France. Sibyl marvels at the view from their terrace and playfully chides Elyot for seeming less enthused. Seeking reassurances, she persistently asks how she compares to his first wife, Amanda, a woman she blames for making him miserable and causing his divorce five years earlier. Annoyed, Elyot counters that he and Amanda were both at fault in their volatile marriage. Sibyl, who is seven years younger than Elyot, asserts that she will make a better wife. Elyot admits he may be wiser in love, and suspects Sibyl will try to manage him. 

As the Chases return to their room, newlyweds Amanda and Victor Prynne walk onto the shared terrace from their adjacent suite. Their conversation mirrors Sibyl and Elyot’s: Victor asks his new wife if she loves him more than she did her ex-husband, Elyot, a man who hit her. Amanda responds that she was equally violent with Elyot (once smashing four phonograph records on his head) but now loves Victor more calmly. Victor vows to protect her and make her happy, but Amanda is annoyed and reveals that she doesn’t believe she fits in with society’s expectations. 

While alone on the terrace, exes Elyot and Amanda are shocked to discover they are in adjoining suites. They try to convince their respective partners to leave. Sibyl and Victor refuse, and after arguing with their spouses, leave in frustration to have dinner alone. Elyot and Amanda reappear on the terrace in mock civility as they compare their new spouses and assess the absurdity of their predicament over cocktails. As a nostalgic tune from the orchestra stirs up memories, Elyot and Amanda admit that they regret divorcing and still love each other despite their constant fighting. They impulsively ditch their spouses and run away to Amanda’s apartment in Paris, sending a telegram to Victor and Sibyl from the road. They agree to use the phrase “Solomon Isaacs” to deescalate their habitual bickering. 

In Act 2, Elyot and Amanda spend time in Paris in romantic bliss, convinced that their love has matured and that they have made the right decision in their hearts if not in society’s eyes. They dread the eventual confrontation with Victor and Sibyl, but are convinced they will handle the situation with poise. As they reflect on the foolishness of their divorce, the topic of past infidelities stirs up their jealousies and resentment. Elyot is annoyed when Amanda brings up Victor, and Amanda rebuffs Elyot’s sexual advances. They spend the evening alternating insinuating insults and romantic platitudes, interjecting the code, shortened to “Sollocks,” several times to preempt heated arguments and passionately make up. 

Amanda worries that their love won’t last. Elyot refuses to take anything seriously and laughs at life and death. They recollect their first physical fight with amusement, but the memory leads to rehashing old arguments. When Elyot complains that Amanda is playing a record too loudly, “Sollocks” no longer defuses the tension, and their bickering escalates into a familiar physical fight: Amanda smashes a record on his head, and Elyot slaps her. As Victor and Sibyl arrive unnoticed, Elyot and Amanda break away and storm off to separate bedrooms, slamming their doors. Victor and Sibyl spend the night on separate sofas that block the bedroom doors.

Act 3 begins the following morning. Elyot and Amanda separately attempt to sneak out of the apartment with their suitcases but are thwarted by Victor and Sibyl. Elyot and Amanda agree to sit down and allow their spouses to get their affairs in order, yet neither treats the occasion with appropriate seriousness; Amanda gushes over the view of Paris, and Elyot cracks jokes about the apartment’s untidy state. When Elyot insults Amanda for her affectations, Victor comes to her defense and is ready to fight Elyot. Uninterested in stopping them, Amanda takes Sibyl to her bedroom. 

Elyot convinces Victor not to fight, contending that it would only satisfy the women’s vanity. When Victor asks if Elyot loves Amanda, Elyot glibly responds that he doesn’t presently, but advises Victor to forgive her if he still loves her. Victor plans to divorce Amanda and expects Elyot to marry her, but Elyot refuses, insulting Victor’s manhood and storming off to his room. Sibyl and Amanda also exchange insults, prompting Sibyl to defend Elyot’s behavior and join him in his room. 

Victor helps Amanda clean the room, and she apologizes for hurting him. Amanda explains that she hates Elyot but also has an almost chemical attraction to him. Victor decides not to divorce Amanda to protect her reputation and offers to live apart; they can divorce once Sibyl and Elyot’s divorce is finalized. Sibyl and Elyot return to the living room and announce that they will not divorce and will live apart instead, giving Elyot and Amanda a year to sort out their feelings. 

The two couples sit together for breakfast in a strained attempt at decorum and casual conversation. Inevitably, tensions resurface, this time from Victor and Sibyl as they defend their spouses and bicker over each other’s annoying habits. Elyot and Amanda exchange knowing looks and quietly rise from the table and head out the door just as Sibyl slaps Victor’s face and he shakes her by the shoulders.