When Noel Coward wrote Present Laughter in 1939, just before WWII inconveniently halted rehearsals, its light-hearted comedy was eventually destined to provide uplifting wartime fare. Among his more frivolous plays, it follows the contemporary convention of hinting waspishly at things it cannot say out loud. A love that dared not speak its name is never mentioned, but it simmers beneath the surface. To a modern audience this coyness can easily make the material feel beyond its best before date, so what is to be done to freshen it up?
In Mathew Warchus’ 2019 production for the Old Vic, tweaks were made to modify a couple of characters to make the implicit more explicit, but this current touring production, originated at Theatre Royal Bath under the direction of Lindsay Posner, takes an altogether bolder step.
Here no less than seven out of the total eleven characters have been gender-reversed, and the action moved from 1930s London to the late 1970s in New York. Garry Essendine becomes Geri, an actress who is steadfastly refusing to approach 50, and the swarm of acolytes who buzz around her have all been suitably reassigned names and roles to make the scenario fit in these new surroundings. The show’s star Tracy-Ann Oberman has personally reworked the text to ensure that all the acid drops in the dialogue retain the appropriate tartness.
The last time we saw Oberman here at the Playhouse was as a female Shylock in a production of The Merchant of Venice set in 1936. Coward himself shamelessly wrote Present Laughter (as he did many of his plays) as a star vehicle for himself, so you could easily ponder whether Oberman is performing a similar exercise, but as with her Shylock, there is far more to it than that, and the result is something that elevates the text and makes it feel startlingly modern.
Refurbishing a listed building takes great care and sensitivity, and the producers have obtained full ‘planning consent’ from Noel Coward’s estate for this modernisation work on a treasured edifice.
As she reluctantly prepares for a tour of Australia (Africa in the original) Geri sashays about her Manhattan loft surrounded by a constant stream of staff and visitors. Key among these are David Sillington (Seb Carrington) and Johannes Lyppiat (Kit Young), both of whom are besotted with Geri in slightly different ways. Throughout what pans out as rather conventional drawing room farce, plot progression is almost stage managed by James Dreyfus as Monty, the camp and efficient secretary, along with Perry Williams and Gabriella Foley as Fred the valet and Miss Ericson the housekeeper.
Meanwhile Geri’s (not-so-very) ex-husband Len is played by Adrian Lukis, whose patient demeanour almost appears to be channelling John Le Mesurier, as he tries to protect Geri from her own folly. Jonathan Tafler is Morris, who is one of a string of people fostering a dalliance with Johannes, while co-producing Geri’s upcoming play along with Johannes’s wife Henrietta (Charlotte Randle). A series of increasingly surreal episodes punctuate the main storyline featuring repeated appearances by the maniacal young playwright Rosina Maule (Eva Feiler).The cast is completed by Richenda Carey as David’s doting aunt, Lady Saltburn.
The play revolves around artifice, and principally that of the central figure of Geri who is, by profession, a diva whose existence is all about acting. The most striking thing about the cast and direction in this production is that Oberman is the one who makes everything appear effortless and real, and there is a deliberate ‘actorliness’ from the rest of the cast. This has the effect of extracting maximum comedy from the other characters’ frequent insistence that Geri is overacting, when in fact she appears to be the most sincere and truthful among them. She is, in fact, quite simply incandescent in the role.
Amidst the necessary chaos and confusion required of the narrative, there is a seamless clockwork in the action and the delivery of the huge amount of dialogue. This is a cast that has been rehearsed to the millisecond, with every movement timed to perfection and every line landing exactly as it should. Peter McKintosh’s designs provide a real sense of 70s style in everything from the industrial chic of the apartment itself to the array of period costume, and Richard Howell’s lighting brings warmth to the settings by both day and night.
All in all, this Present Laughter does far more than throw a few ideas at what Coward himself described as ‘a very light comedy’. It lifts it up and gives it a really good shake, bringing new life and extra gloss to an already slick script.
Present laughter is at Liverpool Playhouse until Saturday 24 October and concludes its current tour at Chichester Festival Theatre in November.
Rating: 4 stars
Production photography by Simon Annand
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This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
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