Thinking Cowardly Thoughts

Making his South Coast Repertory debut in Noel Coward’s “Private Lives,” which opens tonight in Costa Mesa, puts Alastair Duncan in mind of the playwright’s relationship with Gertrude Lawrence.

“They fought like cat and dog, but they also loved each other,” said the Scottish actor, who plays Elyot, the role that Coward created for himself opposite Lawrence’s Amanda in the original 1930 production in London. “Coward had a reputation for being vitriolic in company. But he did it with such style and panache, all you could do was laugh.”

Duncan, who moved to Los Angeles in 1994, has starred in “Private Lives” before, at London’s New Victory Theatre. Distance and differences in cultures and productions notwithstanding, “the interpretation of the play seems to be universal no matter where it’s done,” he said. “It’s so tightly written and well-constructed that it’s difficult to take it out of its period, setting or social milieu.”

There’s also not much room to reinterpret the role of Elyot, whom critics have long regarded as Coward’s mouthpiece and alter ego. Duncan sees him as “an overgrown, spoiled child with a tremendous sense of himself and what life should be. He wants things his way, and he can get them his way.”

Except when it comes to love.

“The one thing he loves more than anything is Amanda,” Duncan says, referring to the femme fatale, played here by Lynnda Ferguson (last seen at SCR in the title role of “Hedda Gabler”). “But she’s the one thing Elyot can’t have on his terms because she lives life on her terms. If she didn’t, then she wouldn’t be the Amanda that he loves.”

* “Private Lives” opens tonight at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesday-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Ends Feb. 8. $28-$43. (714) 708-5555.