by Noël Coward, 1939

About

Noël Coward's semi-autobiographical comedy masterpiece, directed by Bernard Godwin. The plot follows a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in Africa. Amid a series of events bordering on farce, Garry has to deal with women who want to seduce him, placate both his long-suffering secretary and his estranged wife, cope with a crazed young playwright, and overcome his fear of his own approaching fortieth birthday and, by implication, his impending mid-life crisis. The story was described by Coward as "a series of semi-autobiographical pyrotechnics". Written in 1939 and judged by many to be his most humorous, Coward's play is about a man reaching middle age and, in an effort to deny the advancing years he "indulges in rampant womanising". Not quite Coward's style, given his sexual preferences, but it makes great comic theatre in its wittily exaggerated account of the lives of the rich and famous whose privileged lifestyles don't stop them behaving badly.

Cast