This does not quite carry the clipped sophistication of many previous productions. The lines, particularly those of Elyot, are not delivered in the asexual fashion of Coward himself and have led many to assume that the play is primarily an entertainment. Davies attempts to show that it is not, discovering depths in it that have remained unexplored.

Though Tim Hatley's settings place it fairly and squarely in the twenties, the play itself has taken on more modern resonances. Yet it keeps away from cynicism. Elyot and Amanda's plight is that of two people who are afraid to admit how much in love they are, burying it beneath tempestuous onslaughts on each other's smaller rather than finer feelings. One senses that Victor and Sibyl, on the other hand, are not really in love with their new partners at all, regarding them as acceptable catches who will be broughtto heel eventually.

What purports to be a comedy has turned into a more surprising exploration of the institution of marriage itself, seen from Coward's perspective as an outsider. Rickman pitches his performance at such an introspective level that at times he is almost inaudible. But he never leaves us in doubt about his love for Amanda, his touching singing of If Love Were All being the most moving moment of the play. Duncan plays Amanda as a woman of high intelligence with feminist leanings, diametrically opposed to the outlook of someone like Sibyl, whom Emma Fielding portrays as spoiled and spiteful beneath her brittle charm. Adam Godley is excellent as a gawky Victor, more youthful and less skilled in the ways of the world than usual.