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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A fast-paced and witty bedroom farce of the 1930s, Present Laughter was written by Coward as a vehicle in which he himself planned to star, and it may well reflect some of the less attractive aspects of his own life. The play concerns a well-known, 40-ish actor, Gary Essendine, who is about to set off for a series of performances in Africa. Essendine enjoys all the perks of stardom, including women who can't resist him, fawning fans, and late nights of partying, followed by late mornings of undisturbed sleeping. Though he is married to Liz, they have been separated for a couple of years, and neither minds the other's dalliances, or the serial dalliances of their circle of friends.
In the course of the play, several women "forget their latch keys" and have to spend the night at Essendine's apartment, where his secretary, valet, and housekeeper hide them to keep succeeding visitors from discovering them. One of them, Joanna, is married to Essendine's friend Henry, but she has had a long-standing affair with another friend, Morris, and she seduces Essendine in the course of the play. In the midst of all this deception, a young playwright also arrives, wanting to know if Essendine has read his play, at the same time confessing to having an obsession with Essendine himself, before he is shuttled off to the office when yet another unexpected visitor arrives.
As is always the case with Coward, each scene sets the stage for the next scene, and the play unfolds with dramatic ease and considerable dramatic irony. The characterizations are exaggerated for comic effect, and the dialogue is witty, with many tongue-in-cheek remarks, as the all-consuming game of "musical beds," "heartfelt" confessions, and diabolical scheming takes place. Fast pace is crucial to the action, demanding the split second appearances and disappearances of some characters as new characters enter and depart.
Though the hijinx are distinctly sexual, the play maintains an elegance of language and an on-stage formality. The clever repartee never descends to vulgarity, and the love scenes all take place off-stage. Universal in its observations of human nature, this play is still being revived and finding audiences after more than half a century. This play and Private Lives are Coward at his best. Mary Whipple
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
"You are no more serious about the pangs of love than I am."
10 April 2005
Format:Paperback
A fast-paced and witty bedroom farce of the 1930s, Present Laughter was written by Coward as a vehicle in which he himself planned to star, and it may well reflect some of the less attractive aspects of his own life. The play concerns a well-known, 40-ish actor, Gary Essendine, who is about to set off for a series of performances in Africa. Essendine enjoys all the perks of stardom, including women who can't resist him, fawning fans, and late nights of partying, followed by late mornings of undisturbed sleeping. Though he is married to Liz, they have been separated for a couple of years, and neither minds the other's dalliances, or the serial dalliances of their circle of friends.
In the course of the play, several women "forget their latch keys" and have to spend the night at Essendine's apartment, where his secretary, valet, and housekeeper hide them to keep succeeding visitors from discovering them. One of them, Joanna, is married to Essendine's friend Henry, but she has had a long-standing affair with another friend, Morris, and she seduces Essendine in the course of the play. In the midst of all this deception, a young playwright also arrives, wanting to know if Essendine has read his play, at the same time confessing to having an obsession with Essendine himself, before he is shuttled off to the office when yet another unexpected visitor arrives.
As is always the case with Coward, each scene sets the stage for the next scene, and the play unfolds with dramatic ease and considerable dramatic irony. The characterizations are exaggerated for comic effect, and the dialogue is witty, with many tongue-in-cheek remarks, as the all-consuming game of "musical beds," "heartfelt" confessions, and diabolical scheming takes place. Fast pace is crucial to the action, demanding the split second appearances and disappearances of some characters as new characters enter and depart.
Though the hijinx are distinctly sexual, the play maintains an elegance of language and an on-stage formality. The clever repartee never descends to vulgarity, and the love scenes all take place off-stage. Universal in its observations of human nature, this play is still being revived and finding audiences after more than half a century. This play and Private Lives are Coward at his best. Mary Whipple
In the course of the play, several women "forget their latch keys" and have to spend the night at Essendine's apartment, where his secretary, valet, and housekeeper hide them to keep succeeding visitors from discovering them. One of them, Joanna, is married to Essendine's friend Henry, but she has had a long-standing affair with another friend, Morris, and she seduces Essendine in the course of the play. In the midst of all this deception, a young playwright also arrives, wanting to know if Essendine has read his play, at the same time confessing to having an obsession with Essendine himself, before he is shuttled off to the office when yet another unexpected visitor arrives.
As is always the case with Coward, each scene sets the stage for the next scene, and the play unfolds with dramatic ease and considerable dramatic irony. The characterizations are exaggerated for comic effect, and the dialogue is witty, with many tongue-in-cheek remarks, as the all-consuming game of "musical beds," "heartfelt" confessions, and diabolical scheming takes place. Fast pace is crucial to the action, demanding the split second appearances and disappearances of some characters as new characters enter and depart.
Though the hijinx are distinctly sexual, the play maintains an elegance of language and an on-stage formality. The clever repartee never descends to vulgarity, and the love scenes all take place off-stage. Universal in its observations of human nature, this play is still being revived and finding audiences after more than half a century. This play and Private Lives are Coward at his best. Mary Whipple
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
His most revealing?
6 Sep 2004
Format:Paperback
Garry Essendine, the hero of PRESENT LAUGHTER, is almost transparently Coward's idea of himself as the complete theater man whose life depends, in a odd twist of dependency itself, on the loyalty and cooperation of a vast staff of employees, most of whom know better than he what he is like and what he needs to go on. These include Monica Reed, his beautiful, devoted secretary who sees right through him llike Bette Davis seeing through Sheridan Whiteside in THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER. Then there is Liz, Garry's wife who left him but never managed to divorce him, which allows him to play loose with all the young ladies who have fallen for their aging matinee idol.
In Coward's case, the reason he needed a bulwark to fend off young female admirers is because he was gay, and in PRESENT LAUGHTER, the characterization of the young pretentious playwright Ronald Maule, who becomes a slave to garry Essendine through a bit of ill-advised personal contact, is surprisingly frank for its day (wartime UK). The whole play is filled with Coward's trademark dialogue, as Garry is constantly false and hilariously hysterical, while all the other characters continually deflate him with their loving barbs. If it is not Coward's best play, then I don't know what is.
In Coward's case, the reason he needed a bulwark to fend off young female admirers is because he was gay, and in PRESENT LAUGHTER, the characterization of the young pretentious playwright Ronald Maule, who becomes a slave to garry Essendine through a bit of ill-advised personal contact, is surprisingly frank for its day (wartime UK). The whole play is filled with Coward's trademark dialogue, as Garry is constantly false and hilariously hysterical, while all the other characters continually deflate him with their loving barbs. If it is not Coward's best play, then I don't know what is.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Another winner
27 April 2000
Another winner from the folks at L.A. Theatre Works who bring together all-star casts to brilliantly perform plays from all genres. You can hear the actors having fun with the material.
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