EIGHTY years old it may be, but the wit and repartee in Noel Coward’s Private Lives is as fresh, funny and engaging as it must have been in 1930, when the play premiered with Coward and his favourite actress Gertrude Lawrence in the leading roles – Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne.

Elyot and Amanda were once married to each other, but their tempestuous marriage hit the rocks five years ago and they are now on honeymoon with new partners in fashionable Deauville.

By a bizarre stroke of fate, both couples end up in neighbouring rooms in a seafront hotel.

And that’s where the fun starts.

The sardonic and flippant Elyot (Nicholas Boulton) and feisty Amanda (Susie Trayling) strike sparks off each other like flint on steel throughout this excellent production.

Sophie Roberts and Simon Harrison as the hapless other halves provide their own counterpoint brand of comedy – she the fluffy featherhead, he the stuffy and baffled Englishman.

Charlotte Longfield also delivers a convincing performance as the unflappable French maid – and in French too.

With seats newly reupholstered and plenty of legroom, Salisbury Playhouse is a good place to spend an evening listening to Coward’s timeless lines being delivered with all the original (and decidedly non-PC) sparkle still intact.

Who today would dare to pen a line like “Some women are like gongs, and should be struck regularly”?

PC or not, the capacity audience was delighted with this production and so was I.