It’s the language that catches you first, from a world that is always 1930 and words that could only have been written by Noël Coward. “Very flat, Norfolk”, naturally, but I had forgotten this interchange between Amanda and Elyot: “I was brought up to believe that it was beyond the pale for a man to strike a woman.” “A very poor tradition. Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs.”

And Amanda has more, as the chaotic plot develops: “I don’t believe in crying over my bridge before I’ve eaten it.”

What then catches you is how expert the Oxford Shakespeare Company is. I reviewed them a few weeks ago when they launched their Tempest at Wadham. Coward’s Private Lives does not automatically offer itself as a candidate for outdoor presentation, but in the end a play’s a play and this works well (although it drizzled threateningly for some minutes at the performance I attended last week). There is a huge benefit in being seated so close to the action — something that cannot happen in a real theatre.

It’s a small company, and thus it is inevitable that one reports on renewed successes for two of the main company players in The Tempest who also take lead parts here: Rodney Matthew as Elyot and Sophie Franklin as Sybil. I did not mention Christopher Jordan’s Trinculo last time, but am very happy to highlight him as Victor here.

The big, stage-burning addition is Pandora Clifford as Amanda. Here is a rip-roaring, nose-flaring, tough bitch performance. High cheek bones and splendid frocks add to the sheer posh poxiness of her role as the gal who loved and married Elyot, left him after massive and continuous fights and remarries the slightly gentler Victor. Meanwhile, Elyot is on honeymoon in the south of France with his new bride Sybil. You know the story. Here’s a critique of the OSC production. The four leads are excellent: Matthew is a consummate, reactive, player with splendid timing; Clifford adds, in the last act, subtlety to her swashbuckling; Jordan grows in his part as the constrained new-married in the tougher of the two male roles; Franklin is top-notch and a lovely simperer as the second female lead.

There are two further bonuses. The company offers an ensemble to perform pleasant music: it is, for this reviewer, so right to use Charles Trenet’s La Mer as a rolling theme. And Matthew Fraser Holland gives us a blinder as an uncredited hotel maid.

n Until August 20. Box office: 0844 879 4418 and 01865 305305.