Present Laughter
Present Laughter is a comic play written by
The plot depicts a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed light comedy actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in Africa. Amid a series of events bordering on
Coward starred as Garry during the original run, which began with a long provincial tour to accommodate wartime audiences. He reprised the role in the first British revival and later in the United States and Paris. Subsequent productions have featured Albert Finney, Peter O'Toole, Donald Sinden, Ian McKellen, Simon Callow and Andrew Scott, and in the United States Clifton Webb, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., George C. Scott, Frank Langella and Kevin Kline.
Background
In April and May 1939 Coward wrote two contrasting comedies, both with titles drawn from
Between the outbreak of war and 1942 Coward worked for the British government, first in its Paris propaganda office and then for the secret service.[7] In 1942 the prime minister, Winston Churchill, told Coward that he would do more good for the war effort by entertaining the troops and the home front: "Go and sing to them when the guns are firing – that's your job!"[8] Though disappointed, Coward followed this advice. He toured, acted and sang indefatigably in Europe, Africa and Asia.[9]
Original production
Present Laughter was first staged at the beginning of a 25-week tour of Britain by Coward and his cast. His producer,
Original cast
- Daphne Stillington – Jennifer Gray
- Miss Erikson – Molly Johnson
- Fred – Billy Thatcher
- Monica Reed – Beryl Measor
- Garry Essendine – Noël Coward
- Liz Essendine – Joyce Carey
- Roland Maule – James Donald
- Henry Lyppiatt – Gerald Case
- Morris Dixon – Dennis Price
- Joanna Lyppiatt – Judy Campbell
- Lady Saltburn – Gwen Floyd
Plot
All three acts of the play are set in Garry Essendine's London flat.
Act I
Daphne Stillington, a young admirer of the actor Garry Essendine, has inveigled herself into the flat and has spent the night there. Garry is still asleep, and while waiting for him to wake, Daphne encounters in turn three of his employees: the housekeeper (Miss Erikson), valet (Fred), and secretary (Monica). None of them display any surprise at her presence. Garry finally wakes and with practised smoothness ushers Daphne out.
Liz Essendine, who left Garry years ago, nevertheless remains part of his tightly-knit 'family' along with Monica and his manager, Morris Dixon, and producer, Henry Lyppiatt. Liz tells Garry that she suspects that Morris is having an affair with Henry's glamorous wife Joanna, and is concerned that this might break up the family. Their discussion is interrupted by the arrival of Roland Maule, an aspiring young playwright from Uckfield, whose play Garry has rashly agreed to critique. Liz leaves, and Roland rapidly becomes obsessively fascinated by Garry, who gets him off the premises as quickly as he can.
Morris and Henry arrive and discuss theatrical business with Garry. Henry leaves for a business trip abroad, and Garry privately interrogates Morris, who denies that he is having an affair with Joanna. Garry telephones Liz to reassure her.
Act II
- Scene 1, midnight, three days later.
Garry, alone in the flat, answers the doorbell to find Joanna. She claims (like Daphne in Act I) to have forgotten her own door key and asks Garry to accommodate her in his spare room. He correctly suspects her motives, but after much skirmishing allows himself to be seduced.
- Scene 2, the next morning.
Joanna emerges from the spare room wearing Garry's pyjamas just as Daphne did in Act I. She too encounters Miss Erikson, Fred, and then Monica, who is horrified at her presence in such compromising circumstances. Liz arrives and puts pressure on Joanna by threatening to tell Morris that Joanna has spent the night with Garry. Joanna retreats to the spare room when the doorbell rings, but the caller is not Morris but Roland Maule, who says he has an appointment with Garry. Monica leads him to an adjacent room to wait for Garry.
Frantic comings and goings follow, with the flustered arrivals and departures of Morris and Henry, Roland's pursuit of Garry, and the arrival of a Lady Saltburn, to whose niece Garry has promised an audition. The niece turns out to be Daphne Stillington, who recites the same Shelley poem, "We Meet Not as We Parted", with which he bade her farewell in Act I. Joanna flounces out from the spare room, Daphne faints with horror, Roland is entranced, and Garry is apoplectic.
Act III
A week later, on the eve of Garry's departure on tour in Africa, he is once more alone in the flat. The doorbell rings and Daphne enters saying she has a ticket to sail with him to Africa. The doorbell rings again, and Daphne retreats to an adjoining room. The new caller is Roland, who announces that he too has a ticket for the voyage to Africa. Garry tries to get him to leave, but as the doorbell rings a third time Roland bolts into the spare room and locks the door. The third caller is Joanna, who has also bought a ticket for the Africa voyage and has written a letter to Henry and Morris telling them everything. Liz arrives and saves the tottering situation, announcing that she too is travelling to Africa.
Henry and Morris arrive and berate Garry for his night with Joanna. Garry fights back by revealing the details of Morris and Joanna's affair, and Henry's extramarital adventures. Joanna angrily slaps Garry's face and leaves for good. Her departure goes unnoticed because Garry, Henry and Morris have become embroiled in what for them is a much more serious row when it emerges that Henry and Morris have committed Garry to appear at what he considers a shockingly unsuitable theatre. Garry objects: "I will not play a light French comedy to an auditorium that looks like a Gothic edition of Wembley Stadium."[15] When that row has blown itself out, it is business as usual and Henry and Morris leave in good humour.
Liz pours Garry a brandy and tells him she is not only going to Africa with him but is coming back to him for good. Garry suddenly remembers Daphne and Roland lurking in the adjoining rooms and tells Liz: "You're not coming back to me... I'm coming back to you",[16] and they tiptoe out.
Revivals
The play has been regularly revived. Coward directed and starred in the first West End revival, in 1947. It ran for 528 performances; Carey once again played Liz, Moira Lister played Joanna, and Robert Eddison played Roland.[17] Coward handed on the lead role to Hugh Sinclair in July 1947.[18] The first West End revival after that was in 1965, with Nigel Patrick as Garry.[n 2]
Notable successors in the role of Garry include
Present Laughter was first staged in the US in 1946; after an out-of-town tour it opened on 29 October 1946 at the
Adaptations
Paris
Coward directed and starred in a French translation, Joyeux Chagrins, with the central character renamed Max Aramont. The production toured, beginning in Brussels, before opening at the Théâtre Édouard VII in Paris in 1948.[35] In September 1996 a new French adaptation, titled Bagatelle was presented at the Théâtre de Paris, starring Michel Sardou in the lead role, now named Jean Delecour.[29]
Radio
In September 1956 the BBC broadcast a radio production with John Gielgud as Garry, Nora Swinburne as Liz and Mary Wimbush as Joanna.[36] In 1974, Paul Scofield played the lead role for the BBC, with Fenella Fielding as Joanna, Patricia Routledge as Monica, Miriam Margolyes as Daphne, and Joy Parker (Scofield's real wife) as Liz.[37] In April 2013, a radio adaptation was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, starring Samuel West as Garry.[38]
Television
As part of the "Play of the Week" series in August 1964 four Coward plays directed and produced by
Autobiographical references
Coward acknowledged that the central character, the egocentric actor Garry Essendine, was a self-caricature.[40] Ben Brantley called the play "among the most shameless, if liveliest, self-addressed valentines in theater history."[41] Coward repeats one of his signature theatrical devices at the end of the play, where the main characters tiptoe out as the curtain falls – a device that he also used in Private Lives, Hay Fever and Blithe Spirit.[42][43]
In the 1970s the director Peter Hall wrote, "what a wonderful play it would be if – as Coward must have wanted – all those love affairs were about homosexuals".[44] Whether or not Coward would have agreed, in the 1940s the transformation of real-life gay relationships into onstage straight ones was essential.[45] The play nevertheless contains many references to Coward's own life. Monica is "unmistakably Lorn Loraine",[46] Coward's long-serving and much-loved secretary. Morris has been seen as Coward's agent and sometime lover Jack Wilson, and Henry as Binkie Beaumont.[47] Liz, played originally by Joyce Carey, is thought to be based partly on the actress herself, who was a member of Coward's inner circle.[48]
Critical reception and analysis
The notices for the first production were excellent.
In 1993 Ned Sherrin wrote, "Present Laughter is one of Coward's four great comedies of manners, along with Hay Fever, Private Lives and Blithe Spirit. It presents a masterly, exaggerated picture not only of the playwright but of his whole household, his court, his admirers, his lifestyle and his era."[53] Brantley observed in The New York Times in 1995, "Yes, Coward was a terrible snob, and there is a certain smugness about Present Laughter that it's best not to examine too closely", but, "The sneaking wisdom of Present Laughter lies in its suggestion that actorly exaggeration and inner honesty are not mutually exclusive."[41] In 1998 John Peter said that despite its period setting the play was timeless, and commented, "As in all the greatest comedies in the language, those of Shakespeare, Congreve and Wilde, the wit is both in the situations and the language."[43] Reviewing the 2016 revival starring Samuel West, Lyn Gardner, in The Guardian, found the play "deeply unpleasant ... misogynistic and snobbish".[26] Two years later the same paper's chief drama critic, Michael Billington, called it an "imperishable comedy".[27]
Reviewing the 2019 Old Vic production, a critic in
Notes, references and sources
Notes
- ^ The word present in the title is pronounced as the adjective /ˈprɛzənt/, and not the verb /prɪˈzɛnt/.[2] "This happy breed", referring to the English nation, is a quotation from Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1;[3] "sweet sorrow" is from Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2.[4]
- Avice Landon played Monica, Phyllis Calvert, Liz, Maxine Audley, Joanna, and Richard Briers, Roland Maule.[19]
- ^ Finney's cast included Eleanor Bron as Liz, and Diana Quick as Joanna.[20][21]
- ^ The production also featured Dinah Sheridan as Liz, Gwen Watford as Monica and Julian Fellowes as Roland Maule.[23]
- ^ In this production Gabrielle Drake played Monica and Jenny Seagrove, Joanna.[24]
- ^ Monica was played by Sarah Woodward, Lisa Dillon played Joanna.[25]
- ^ Fairbanks played Garry in a production at the Kennedy Center, Washington, in March 1975. Jane Alexander played Liz and Ilka Chase played Monica.[31]
- ^ Scott directed and starred in a revival at Circle in the Square Theatre, with Elizabeth Hubbard as Liz, Dana Ivey as Monica and Nathan Lane as Roland Maule.[31] It ran for 175 performances.[32]
- ^ Langella starred in a production at the Walter Kerr Theatre from 18 November 1996, with Allison Janney as Liz.[32]
- Harriet Harris as Monica.[33]
- ^ Produced at the St. James Theatre, with Kate Burton as Liz, Reg Rogers as Morris, Cobie Smulders as Joanna, and Kristine Nielsen as Monica. It ran for 101 performances.[34]
References
- ^ a b Coward (1954), p. 3; and Mander and Mitchenson, p. 353
- ^ Shakespeare, p. 708
- ^ Shakespeare, p. 360
- ^ Shakespeare, p. 327
- ^ Coward (1954), p. 170
- ^ Coward (1979), unnumbered introductory page
- ^ Hoare, Philip. "Coward, Sir Noël Peirce (1899–1973), playwright and composer", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2019 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
- ^ Morley (1974), p. 246
- ^ Morley (2005), pp. 76–77
- ^ Farley, p. 14
- ^ Mander and Mitchenson, p. 345
- ^ Mander and Mitchenson, p. 347
- ^ "Opera House", The Manchester Guardian, 15 October 1942, p 1
- ^ Mander and Mitchenson, pp. 345–346
- ^ Coward (1979), p. 245
- ^ Coward (1979), p. 246
- ^ "Haymarket Theatre", The Times, 17 April 1947, p. 6
- ^ Mander and Mitchenson, p. 346
- ^ "A Charmed Circle Keeps its Comic Magic", The Times, 22 April 1965, p. 16
- ^ Billington, Michael. "Coward without camp", The Guardian, 2 April 1977, p. 8
- ^ a b c d e f Fisher, Philip. "Present Laughter", British Theatre Guide, 2007. Retrieved 11 May 2019
- ^ Coe, Richard L. "Merry 'Laughter'", The Washington Post, 16 November 1978
- ^ "Donald Sinden in Coward play", The Times, 21 January 1981, p. 11
- ^ a b Nightingale, Benedict. "Hungry for ham and ego", The Times, 28 February 1996, p. 39
- ^ Billington, Michael. "Present Laughter", The Guardian, 3 October 2007
- ^ a b Gardner, Lyn. "Present Laughter review", The Guardian, 30 June 2016
- ^ a b Billington, Michael. "Present Laughter review", The Guardian, 27 April 2018
- ^ Noah, Sherna. "Andrew Scott wins Olivier Award for Pleasant Laughter stage role" [sic], Irish Examiner, 26 October 2020; and "Andrew Scott wins British theatre award", RTÉ, 24 November 2019
- ^ a b c d Mander and Mitchenson, p. 354
- ^ Lesley, pp. 177–78
- ^ a b Mander and Mitchenson, p. 356
- ^ a b Mander and Mitchenson, pp. 356–357
- ^ "Present Laughter Cast Information", BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 25 January 2010
- ^ "Present Laughter", Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 11 May 2019
- ^ Mander and Mitchenson, p. 353; and Hoare, p. 379
- ^ "John Gielgud in Present Laughter", BBC Genome. Retrieved 11 May 2019
- ^ "The Monday Play: Present Laughter", BBC Genome. Retrieved 11 May 2019
- ^ "Radio Listings", The Times, 6 April 2013, p. 27
- ^ "Joan Kemp-Welch", British Film Institute. Retrieved 3 August 2018
- ^ Lahr, p. 34
- ^ a b Brantley, Ben. "Present Laughter; Sinfully Charming, Noel Coward's 'Me' Requires Charisma", The New York Times, 9 August 1995, p. 9
- ^ Lahr, pp. 36, 84 and 91
- ^ a b Peter, John. "All present and correct", The Sunday Times, 27 December 1998, p. 9 (Arts and books section)
- ^ Hall, 19 April 1976
- ^ Lahr, p. 158
- ^ Hoare, p. 293
- ^ Hoare, pp. 293–94
- ^ Hoare, p. 294
- ^ Brown, Ivor, "Theatre and Life", The Observer, 2 May 1943, p. 2
- ^ "Opera House: Present Laughter",The Manchester Guardian, 21 October 1942, p. 6
- ^ "Haymarket", The Times, 23 June 1947, p. 6
- ^ "Theatre", The Times, 22 April 1965, p. 16
- ^ Sherrin, Ned. "Noel's house party – Present Laughter", The Sunday Times, 27 June 1993, p. 8 (Features section)
- ^ Matheou, Demetrios. "Present Laughter: Theater Review", The Hollywood Reporter, 26 June 2019
- ^ Hemming, Sarah. "Andrew Scott, brilliance and dark mischief in Present Laughter at the Old Vic", Financial Times, 26 June 2019
- ^ Taylor, Paul. "Present Laughter review, The Old Vic: Andrew Scott shines in glorious, revelatory production", The Independent, 26 June 2019
Sources
- Coward, Noël (1954). Future Indefinite. London: Heinemann. OCLC 5002107.
- Coward, Noël (1979). Plays: Four. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-413-46120-9.
- Day, Barry (2007). The Letters of Noël Coward. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-7136-8578-7.
- Farley, Alan (2013). "Interview with ISBN 978-1-4817-7324-9.
- ISBN 978-0-241-11285-4.
- ISBN 978-1-85619-265-1.
- ISBN 978-0-413-48050-7.
- Lesley, Cole (1976). The Life of Noël Coward. London: cape. ISBN 978-0-224-01288-1.
- Mander, Raymond; Mitchenson, Joe; Day, Barry Day; Morley, Sheridan (2000) [1957]. Theatrical Companion to Coward (second ed.). London: Oberon. ISBN 978-1-84002-054-0.
- ISBN 978-0-14-003863-7.
- Morley, Sheridan (2005). Noël Coward. London: Haus. ISBN 978-1-904341-88-8.
- Shakespeare, William (1936). OCLC 5156462.