Private Lives review - Coward's comedy becomes a stark theatre of cruelty

Donmar Warehouse, LondonStephen Mangan and Rachael Stirling bare their teeth in a show that dials up the violence and sometimes struggles to navigate the humour Love is a tempestuous, abusive affair in Michael Longhurst's sleek staging of Noël Coward's intimate tragicomedy. In a production that grows in confidence as the night goes on, the highs and lows of an addictive, damaging relationship are shown through impromptu charleston dances and furiously smashed glasses. Here, love is savage and i...