Natchez &8212; Seventy-five years after Noel Coward wrote &8220;Private Lives,&8221; the play remains as relevant, witty and engaging as it was said to have been in 1930.

The Natchez Little Theatre, in its revival of the three-act play, which opens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, features Michael Norell in the role of Elyot and Patty Killelea as Amanda, former husband and wife whose tempestuous marriage has left them slightly scarred but ultimately still attracted to one another.

Two more characters round out the cast &8212; Rose Temple as Sibyl and James Gavette as Victor.

The play, set in the 1920s, opens at a resort hotel in France, where Elyot and his new wife, Sibyl, and Amanda, now married to Victor, are honeymooning next door to one another.

&8220;Honeymooning is a vastly overrated experience,&8221; Amanda tells Victor, as the new husband continuously quizzes her about Elyot.

Under the direction of Douglas McCallum, both couples skillfully provide the audience with a foreshadowing of tangled relationships to come, all the while entertaining with Coward&8217;s witty one-liners &8212; even a simple &8220;Don&8217;t quibble, Sibyl,&8221; from the urbane Elyot eliciting laughter.

Elyot and Amanda, each alone outside their rooms, see each other on the adjoining terraces, try to avoid one another but find the attraction too compelling, finally deciding to abandon their new spouses and escape to Paris.

All of Act II is set in the bedroom where Elyot and Amanda decide they are still in love with one another and then rethink the whole relationship again.

Comedy, romance, surprise, artful dialogue and experienced acting and directing combined to keep the small audience at dress rehearsal on edge and involved in the performance.

After Thursday&8217;s opening, the show will continue on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the playhouse on Linton Avenue. Ticket information is available by calling 601-442-2233.