Present Laughter
By Noel Coward
Directed by Sean Foley
Designed by Alice Power
Chichester Festival Theatre,
Monday 23rdApril 2018, 19.30
Chichester: Festival 2018
Preview performance
Generally, official reviews are done on press night. This is a very short run, and we could only conveniently see it earlier, in the third performance. While it’s £32 instead of £42 for front stalls for previews, these are premier league experienced professional actors. The argument against is that sometimes cuts and changes are made before press night. However, as the director and lead have said, every line works and seems essential. I feel ok about reviewing a “preview.”
CAST:
Rufus Hound – Garry Essendine, a fading actor & musical star
Katherine Kingsley- Liz Essendine, his separated wife
Tracy-Ann Oberman – Monica Reed, Garry’s secretary
Ben Allen – Roland Maule, aspiring playwright
Delroy Atkinson – Fred, Garry’s valet
Lucy Briggs-Owen – Joanna Lyppiatt, his producer’s glamorous wife
Lizzy Connolly – Daphne Stillington, a ‘pretty 23 year old’
Emilio Doorgasingh – Henry Lyppiatt, his producer
Tamzin Griffin – Miss Erikson, Garry’s housekeeper
Carol Macready – Lady Saltburn, Daphne’s aunt
Richard Mylan – Morris Dixon, Garry’s manager
Chichester kicks off its Festival Season with two of the best Midsummer Night’s Dream “Helenas” I’ve ever seen, and in the same play: Lucy Briggs-Owen (RSC) and Katherine Kingsley (Grandage Season). Chichester steers a clever line between popular big productions in the Festival Theatre, and interesting and often new material in the smaller Minerva Theatre. Noel Coward is a win-win choice. The theatre is so popular that even getting in fast on the “Friends” Priority Booking day, the best I could get was third row back in the Festival Theatre, and sometimes we’re lucky to even get two seats next to each other in the Minerva. I assume that they have enough patrons in the higher “Festival Players” level of priority booking. However, the Festival Theatre is huge and you can get nearly always get seats further back.
The two earlier productions which I’ve reviewed of Present Laughter took different routes to the character of Garry Essendine, which was based on Coward and originally played by Coward himself in three separate productions. Coward was so self-aware when he wrote it. Take this exchange, one of many:
JOANNA: I know that voice, Garry. You’ve used it in every play you’ve ever been in.
GARRY: Complete naturalness on the stage is my strong suit.
The 2003 tour went for Rik Mayall, an established comedian and TV sitcom star. The 2016 production went for an established actor, Samuel West. The over-the-top portrayal by Rik Mayall won for us, because like Noel Coward, he was already a known and recognizable personality and star, as is the character in the play. Chichester are going for Rufus Hound, who made his name in stand-up, but gravitated towards theatre. I’d say he is far better known to the general public than Samuel West (especially “yoof,” as the compere at Glastonbury) but still less recognisable than Rik Mayall.
Garry Essendine (Rufus Hound)
Like me, Rufus Hound is a late convert to being a major fan of Coward’s plays, and for me that really started with Rik Mayall in this play, though I’d always rated Private Lives after doing lights on it. Rufus Hound on the play itself:
I think I’ve grown up in a period where (Coward’s plays) have been seen as a bit naff, to be perfectly honest … Present Laughter is an unbelievable piece of writing. I’ve done quite a lot of farce and comedy but this is just another level. I’ve never seen a play as well constructed for delivering comedy as this. Every character on that stage has a reason to be there, their motivation is super clear. It’s incredibly well plotted, the jokes are incredibly good, the characters are very well rounded and all of this has a sensitivity and lightness of touch. There’s a Bohemian/liberal thinking that’s slightly surprising for what we would imagine as post Victorian/early 20th century morality.
Rufus Hound, What’sOnStage.com
The plot is described in more detail in the Bath 2016 review. We’re in Garry Essendine’s apartment in 1939. He is a star musical comedy actor. An interesting device is that each Act change here is introduced by an old wireless stating the time frame, then it says ‘Suddenly …’ and a hand (Miss Erikson) reaches round the door and switches it off.
Daphne (Lizzy Connolly) in the opening scene
The opening scene shows dippy debutante Daphne coming downstairs in Garry’s borrowed pyjamas and dressing gown, then encountering the housekeeper, the valet and then Monica, the secretary (Tracy-Ann Oberman), none of whom are fazed by this new arrival, neighing and snorting into the phone with convoluted advanced RP vowels. Garry barely recalls her and wants to send her packing, but polished seducer’s pretence intervenes and insincerity rules.
Liz (Katherine Kingsley) and Garry (Rufus Hound)
His ex-wife, Liz (Katherine Kingsley) arrives and is equally unfazed to find Daphne there. She has important news. She has heard that Joanna, the sexy and predatory wife of his producer, Henry, is having an affair with Garry’s manager, Morris. This is a team breaker and Garry is suitably annoyed. The “team” around Garry is important, he’s the figurehead of a tight commercial theatrical group. They all rely on it, so on each other to maintain it. A young playwright, Roland Maule turns up … Garry has been sent his script. Roland is a masochistic fan in love. Coward has fun with the dialogue on art versus commerce in the theatre.
Garry (Rufus Hound) and Joanna (Lucy Briggs-Owen)
We have a time break to an evening and Joanna (Lucy Briggs-Owen) turns up to seduce Garry. The interval break comes here. Joanna comes down the morning after, seeking breakfast and repeats the “borrowed pyjamas” confrontation with staff scene, though far more assertively than Daphne.
In what was my favourite scene, the three female leads (Liz, Joanna, Monica) confront each other. It’s a brilliant play for females with four major roles. Of course everyone turns up together. Lady Saltburn is dippy deb Daphne’s aunt and wants her to audition in front of Garry. Chaos ensues.
L to R: Fred the valet, Lady Saltburn, Daphne, Garry, Liz (seated), Morris (behind), then Roland (on stool), Monica, Henry at the rear
Garry complains amid banging doors that it’s become a French farce. In the last scene, the night before Garry’s long trip to tour Africa, all his problem people arrive, all bent on travelling with him.
The set needs to be on two levels. I thought it too much of a mismatch. There were two beautiful low art deco chairs, and a stool and some black and gold coffee tables. Then they had a classic red patterned traditional carpet that could go from the 19th century to now. The cream metal banisters had style as did the roof lights. Upstairs had a large portrait of Garry and posters from his plays (including those mentioned in the text). Fair enough. But the lamps had no sense of the style or period at all. I can’t see Noel Coward sharing a room with that carpet, those lamps nor the green sofa. It made me recall some beautiful “ocean liner” art deco sets for Coward plays. The set worked for entrances and exits perfectly, the stairs were well arranged, but it needed more style. Actually it had far more style than Bath in 2016, but I wanted more. Maybe they’re pointing out that Garry isn’t as suave as he thinks.
Roland Maule (Ben Allen), Miss Erikson (Tamzin Griffin) at rear
They have gone wholeheartedly for broad comedy, not sophisticated banter. In that ALL the parts are going for comedy, it is more Whitehall farce in style than even that 2003 Rik Mayall version. There is a great deal of physical stuff, Daphne (Lizzy Connolly) and Roland (Ben Allen) are both played very large indeed, almost pantomime large. That’s not a criticism; they’re also both hilarious in the parts. Rufus Hound puts 100% into it right from the outset. This is no languid Coward character. At the beginning, I thought it was being played too large, but Rufus Hound’s interpretation grew and grew on me as we were forced to admire and applaud the incredible energy he put in.
Morris (Richard Mylan) and Garry (Rufus Hound)
Sean Foley as director has a distinctive style. On his version of The Miser with Lee Mack and Griff Rhys-Jones, critics mentioned that it was so laden with comedy ideas and physical stuff, that while your jaws ached from laughing, there was no let up nor light and shade. It was relentlessly funny. That’s been repeated. Sean Foley loves the “body mirroring” physical joke, where two actors make the same move simultaneously. He introduced a power handshake for Roland that crushed everyone he touched, then turned it round when the ancient Lady Saltburn arrived (and got a huge laugh). Sexy scenes were interrupted by falling off the sofa. Both Roland and Daphne had sudden loud braying nervous laughs … I’d have done either one of them, but not both of them. The RP accents went beyond Prince Charles’ Advanced RP (hice for house) which is funny enough, into some area of accent I’d never heard on spare room (spar rum). Fred the Valet (Delroy Atkinson)’s Jamaican accent was a nice contrast. Poor Morris ended up spilling water every time he got a drink. Garry got a faceful of spit and biscuit from Roland. Much of it was superb physical directing … no plot spoilers, but the balloons business was inspired. But it WAS relentless for a “light comedy” as Coward described it, and more than once Brian Rix and his company at the Whitehall theatre, or Frankie Howard came to mind. The programme quotes the director, Sean Foley:
What you get … is both Coward’s amazing line by line comic language and the craft of farce. In farce the comedy comes from the situation – so a character can get a big laugh from opening a door. In Coward’s world, the character opens a door and says a fantastically amusing line.
Yes, it is played large, and he does do the door opening onto someone’s face routine, but let’s quote the original Noel Coward stage directions:
(He throws himself on the floor, lies face down, with his head upstage on his arms, and drums with his feet.)
Hardly subtle.
I was about to say “Kenneth Williams” as a comparison rather than Brian Rix, but no. Rik Mayall got that Kenneth Williams level of innuendo. In both Bath with Samuel West, and here with Rufus Hound, the potential gay innuendo was skipped over. Rik Mayall’s Garry was if not overtly bisexual, decidedly cheerful. In the Mayall version, Garry worried about where or how he might have first met Roland Maule, and grimaced on the lines about boy scouts and “Joe from Marseilles”. Then there was the admiral from Rugby, whose son Garry had apparently offered to help get on stage. Garry describes:
GARRY: Absolutely marvellous. If he’s the one I’m thinking it is, vast strapping shoulders and tiny tiny hips like a wasp.
(Not that I recall hearing that line here at all). Then we have:
MORRIS: A stab in the back, that’s what it is, a low-down stab in the back.
GARRY: Not too low down, I hope …
and:
GARRY: Thousands of old gentlemen who would be only too delighted to back me in anything I do.
HENRY: I think that rather depends on whether they’re married or not.
Here, Garry could have pointed the suggestion of going to Hampstead Heath more. In contrast, when Lady Saltburn suggests that he “knew Daphne’s mother” Garry has to start in shock. He does. Garry would screw anyone and everyone if it flattered his ego. Garry Essendine was a seducer, but having waxed eloquent about himself and then had his way, the lover was banished to the spare bedroom for the rest of the night. Garry never wanted to wake up next to somebody.
It was, I believe, a choice not to overdo gay innuendos, but then other stuff verged on overdone. Moreover, while Rik Mayall could get away with camping up Garry in 2003, fifteen years have passed. A heterosexual actor lampooning a gay character in a comedy in 2018 might no longer be acceptable on PC grounds. So he didn’t. OK, but Noel Coward, like Mayall, would certainly have camped those lines. It works perfectly well without the added dimension.
Joanna (Lucy Briggs-Owen)
We talked about style on the way back. The two glamorous parts, Liz (Katherine Kingsley) and Joanna (Lucy Briggs-Owen) were dressed perfectly throughout. Strong choices, accentuating their height. They both always look sophisticated and beautiful. They were also both outstanding comedy performances. Joanna’s seduction scene was the best I’ve seen it played.
Monica (Tracy-Ann Oberman) and Liz (Katherine Kingsley)
Then the three way Liz-Joanna- Monica argument starting the second half brought out every nuance, was very funny, but also benefitted from being reined in from the flat out physical comedy elsewhere. They all three looked and sounded more typical of Coward plays. My biggest laugh of all was Joanna’s added mouthed expletive when caught out. We thought in spite of the succession of silky dressing gowns, Rufus could have been more flamboyantly clad, although he doesn’t have the svelte frame for wafting about the set with limp wrists in Noel Coward style … and was wise not to try to.
Tracy Ann-Oberman was an excellent Monica, the secretary who has been with Garry for seventeen years, seen it all, feels free to take the mickey out of him too. She reminds me of a PA I knew too.
Monica (Tracy-Ann Oberman)
They’re all great. Richard Mylan as Garry’s manager, Morris, does an accomplished drunk, with precision water spilling and throwing. Emilio Doorgasingh is Henry, the apparently cuckolded husband of Joanna, staunchly pursuing a double standard. Tamzin Griffin is the Swedish housekeeper, hobbling about, snaffling cigarettes, only interested in her seances. It was good to make the valet, Fred, Jamaican. It accentuates his cheerful disregard for all the relationship angst of his boss.
A word for the finale and dance … absolutely marvellous, introduced by Rufus Hound on the grand piano and singing from aloft, breaking into dance utilising the doors, the stairs, tap dance … the lot. Looks set to be the closing dance of the year to me.
I suspect it might be love it or hate it. On the way out, an elderly couple were saying “What fine actors, but it’s such a shame. It’s NOT Noel Coward.” What it did prove is that the intrinsic play is easily robust enough to withstand a wide range of interpretation, as here, and it still works.
At the end, I was braced to leap to my feet for the standing ovation, but it’s a big place and no one else stood. I wish I had … maybe it would have rippled! The cast thoroughly deserved it. Chichester is often an elderly audience, and Noel Coward will bring out the older end of elderly. Even at my age, I’m like the much younger Rufus Hound; that is, from an era when Noel Coward was definitely out of favour. A lot were sufficiently older than me to remember when he was still in favour. I felt the broader approach would easily take Coward to a younger audience attuned to broader comedy. Trouble is (as Garry notes in the production, though I can’t find the lines in my French’s Acting Edition text), London and the Provinces differ. That line got a great laugh in Chichester. I strongly suspect it is an addition.
It ran 15 minutes longer than advertised in the foyer, but it never felt long for a second.
****
PROGRAMME
Two superb essays by Al Senter and by Kate Bassett, and they’re still holding the price at £3.50. Excellent.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
I predicted that this might get a critical roasting. It did from our most senior critic, Michael Billington. I’m reminded that when we saw Sean Foley’s “The Miser”, Lee Mack stepped aside during a speech to quote Mr Billington’s three star review, by name. The reviews came after I’d given my opinion above.
5 star
Fiona Scott, Broadway World *****
4 star
Bill Avenell, Reviews Hub , **** (actually 4.5)
Ann Treneman, The Times ****
3 star
Domenic Cavendish, Telegraph ***
Has Foley committed a basic category error? Well, no. Coward himself said: “It needs above all abundant physical vitality… I played it more violently than I have ever played anything and swept everybody along with me at breakneck speed.”
Patricia Nicol, Sunday Times, ***
Rosemary Waugh, The Stage ***
Bella Todd, What’s On Stage, ***
2 star
Michael Billington, The Guardian **
“Vulgar Coward revival is an orgy of exaggeration … Sean Foley’s dismal production, which treats this verbally impeccable play as if it were broad farce, complete with bellowed lines, slammed doors and uncontrollable soda-siphons … it’s a sign of this production’s measureless vulgarity that (Lucy Briggs-Owen) signals her seductiveness by drawing her skirt up above her thighs and silently mouthing the word “fuck” when her well-laid plans go awry. … this revival gives Hound little chance to do anything except strike overblown attitudes and leaves me wondering if we are slowly losing the art of playing light comedy. Michael Billington
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard **
LINKS ON THIS BLOG:
PLAYS BY NÖEL COWARD
- Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward, Bath Theatre Royal 2010 (Alison Steadman)
- Blithe Spirit, by Noël Coward, Bath Theatre Royal 2019 (Jennifer Saunders)
- Blithe Spirit FILM 2021 (Judi Dench)
- Fallen Angels, by Noël Coward, Salisbury Playhouse
- Hay Fever by Noël Coward, Bath Theatre Royal
- Relative Values by Noël Coward, Bath Theatre Royal
- This Happy Breed by Noël Coward, Bath Theatre Royal
- Present Laughter, by Noël Coward, Bath Theatre Royal, 2003 Rik Mayall (retrospective)
- Present Laughter by Noël Coward, Bath Theatre Royal 2106, Samuel West
- Present Laughter by Noël Coward, Chichester 2018, Rufus Hound
- Present Laughter by Noël Coward, Old Vic 2019, Andrew Scott
- Private Lives by Noël Coward, Nigel Havers Theatre Company, 2021, Chichester
- Private Lives, by Noël Coward, Donmar Warehouse, London 2023
- Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter, by Emma Rice, Salisbury Playhouse, 2023
- The Vortex, by Noël Coward, Chichester Festival Theatre 2023
SEAN FOLEY (director, writer)
The Miser, by Moliere, 2017
The Dresser, by Ronald Harewood, Chichester 2017
The Painkiller, Francis Veber, Kenneth Branagh Company 2016
Jeeves & Wooster in “Perfect Nonsense”, tour 2013
The Ladykillers, 2011
RUFUS HOUND
What The Butler Saw, by Joe Orton, Bath 2017
Don Quixote, RSC 2016
The Wars of The Roses, trilogy, Kingston, 2015, Barton & Hall adaptation
• Henry VI (Henry VI Part i mainly)
• Edward IV (Henry VI Parts 2 & 3)
• Richard III (Richard III)
LUCY BRIGGS-OWEN
Cardenio, RSC
The City Madam, RSC
Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC (Helena)
Fortune’s Fool, Old Vic
Shakespeare in Love, West End
Communicating Doors, Menier Chocolate Factory
Future Conditional by Tamsin Oglesby, Old Vic 2015
KATHERINE KINGSLEY
The Rehearsal, by Jean Anouilh, Chichester, 2015
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grandage Season, 2013 (Helena)
Relative Values, by Noel Coward, Bath 2013
BEN ALLEN
Antony & Cleopatra, RSC 2017
Julius Caesar, RSC 2017
The Shoemaker’s Holiday, RSC 2015
Peter Viney's Blog 
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