Love, loathing and emotional fireworks feature in Noel Coward's classic comedy of bad manners, Private Lives, which opens at Sheringham Little Theatre today.

Love, loathing and emotional fireworks feature in Noel Coward's classic comedy of bad manners, Private Lives, which opens at Sheringham Little Theatre today.

The play is set on the French Riviera, where former husband and wife Amanda and Elyot are looking forward to a romantic honeymoon with their new spouses.

But, when the happily divorced pair discover they will be holidaying with their new partners in adjacent rooms at the same glamorous hotel, old passions - and resentments - are rekindled, and they find that, as Amanda says, "very few people are completely normal, really deep down in their private lives."

The comedy, which is the final play in the Little Theatre's summer repertory season, stars Eleanor Buchan and Henry Everett as Amanda and Elyot, with Eleanor Buchan and Simon Stanhope playing new spouses Sybil and Victor.

Playing French maid Louise is 18-year-old former Paston College Lucy Gooch, who is shortly due to take up a place studying for a degree in drama and theatre studies at Royal Holloway University, London.

Lucy, who eventually hopes to win a place at drama school, played the lead role in last year's Little Theatre production of Sandy Wilson's musical romance The Boyfriend, also performing in a music hall extravaganza at the venue.

Private Lives runs at Sheringham Little Theatre from today until September 1 and from September 7-12, with the Thriller Dead of Night returning for a second run from September 2-5. Performances are at 7.30pm (Tuesday matinees at 2.30pm) and tickets, priced �13 (�8 under 18s) are available from the box office on 01262 822347. For more information, visit www.sheringhamlittletheatre.com