Buy this book with Plays: "Private Lives", "Bitter-Sweet", the "Marquise", "Post-Mortem" Vol 2 (World Dramatists): "Private Lives", "Bitter-Sweet", The "Marquise", "Post-Mortem" Vol 2 (World Classics) by Noel Coward today!

Buy Together Today: £29.98

Plays: "Design for Living", "Cavalcade", "Conversation Piece", "Tonight at 8.30" Vol 3 (World Dramatists) by Noel Coward £12.99

Plays: "Private Lives", "Bitter-Sweet", the "Marquise", "Post-Mortem" Vol 2 (World Dramatists): "Private Lives", "Bitter-Sweet", The "Marquise", "Post-Mortem" Vol 2 (World Classics) by Noel Coward £14.99

Plays: "Blithe Spirit", "Present Laughter", "This Happy Breed" Vol 4 (World Dramatists): "Blithe Spirit", "Present Laughter", "This Happy Breed" Vol 4 (World Classics) by Noel Coward £9.89

Three Plays: "Blithe Spirit", "Hay Fever", "Private Lives" by Noel Coward £6.94

Plays: "Relative Values", "Look After Lulu", "Waiting in the Wings", "Suite in Three Keys" Vol 5 (World Dramatists) by Noel Coward £9.99

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Synopsis
This first volume in the "Coward Collection" contains four plays written within a two year period when Coward and the century were still in their 20s. The volume is introduced by Sheridan Morley, Coward's first biographer. "Hay Fever", a comedy of bad manners, concerns a weekend with friends of the Bliss family, who have all been invited independently for a weekend at their country house near Maidenhead. "The Vortex" was a controversial drama in its time, introducing drug-addiction onto the stage at a time when alcoholism was barely mentioned."Fallen Angels", which is written for two star actresses was described as 'degenerate', 'vile', 'obscene', and 'shocking' - the second half of the play is entirely taken up with an alcoholic duologue between the two women. "Easy Virtue" is an elegant, laconic tribute to a lost world of drawing-room dramas, no other writer went more directly to the jugular of that moralistic, tight-lipped but fundamentally hypocritical 20s society. "He is simply a phenomenon, and one that is unlikely to occur ever again in theatre history" - Terence Rattigan.

From the Publisher
Includes Hay Fever; The Vortex; Fallen Angels; Easy Virtue
The first of seven volumes of Cowards plays reissued during the 1999 Centenary of Coward's birth, NOEL COWARD PLAYS: ONE includes the plays HAY FEVER, THE VORTEX, EASY VIRTUE and FALLEN ANGELS. Includes an Introduction by Sheridan Morley and a chronology of Coward's life and career.

Three Plays: "Blithe Spirit", "Hay Fever", "Private Lives" by Noel Coward £6.94

Noel Coward Collection DVD ~ Noel Coward £37.98

The Vortex (Methuen Modern Plays) by Noel Coward £7.00

The Accidental Husband [2008] DVD ~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan £11.98

Letters of Noel Coward (Diaries, Letters and Essays) by Noël Coward  (2)  £18.99

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   2 of 4 people found the following review helpful: Highly Recommended., 18 Sep 2003 By  S. Hapgood "www.sjhstrangetales.com" - See all my reviews          What I liked about these plays was how lively and fresh they were. Although very much period pieces of their time there is nothing really dated about them. The It Girls, nice-but-dim blokes, camp-as-Christmas chaps, middle-aged women trying desperately to cling onto their youth, and, at the other end of the scale, self-righteous old harridans revolted by anything to do with sex are still around us today (I liked the fact that people were making jokes about the "Daily Mail" even back in the 1920s!). "Hay Fever" and "Fallen Angels" are farces, and great fun. I particularly liked the part of "Fallen Angels" where Julia and Jane get steadily smashed on champagne whilst waiting for an elusive Frenchman to turn up. "Easy Virtue" too is a farce, but slightly darker, as a Woman With A Past is in danger of being ripped apart by her younger husband's insufferably pious family. The part where she lays into his unbearably moral sister should have modern audiences cheering as much as it would have struck a chord with audiences back then. "The Vortex" is different to the others. It isn't a comedy at all. In it a drug-addict and repressed homosexual finally confronts his feckless mother (who is paranoid about getting old) about what she has done to her family with her promiscuous ways. You have to do a lot of reading between the lines with this one, but Coward pushed it as far as he was able to at the time. The ending is bleak but highly effective. We live in a time which in some ways is very similar to the era these plays were set in, so I can only say there should be more Noel Coward revivals!  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews