Noël Coward wrote his cycle of nine one-act plays as acting, singing, and dancing vehicles specifically for Gertrude Lawrence and himself. Blanche McIntyre’s production for English Touring Theatre is the first time, since their premieres in 1936, that all nine plays have been performed together. They can be seen in three separate triple bills on three consecutive days; or, as I did, all nine on a Saturday, perfect for Coward devotees. McIntyre has made the wise decision to turn a vehicle for two stars into an ensemble piece and the leading roles are shared out between nine actors. Four plays stand out in particular.
The fun of Red Peppers was obviously in seeing Coward and Lawrence pretending to be dead-common music hall artistes, squabbling in their squalid dressing room and performing two tacky routines. Without them, it has usually fallen flat. But this time it succeeds better than I have ever known it because Daniel Crossley and Amy Cudden look like the genuine article.
Fumed Oak, a bitter working-class comedy, which recalls Somerset Maugham’s 1930 comedy, The Breadwinner, is about a henpecked husband (Peter Singh, perfect) who tells his shrewish wife (Olivia Poulet), his adenoidal daughter and his ghastly mother-in-law, exactly what he thinks of them and having delivered his tirade, walks out on them for good.
Still Life, a fine example of low-key, stiff-upper-lip writing, is chiefly remembered today as a film, the quintessential British Brief Encounter, directed by David Lean in 1946. Shereen Martin and Gyuri Sarossy wisely avoid imitating Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, who have been parodied so often, and find their own effective understatement.
The comedy in Hands Across the Sea (said to be a joke at the expense of Lady Louis Mountbatten) comes from the confusion caused by the unexpected arrival of visitors from abroad and their hostess (Kirsty Besterman, perfect) mistaking them for somebody else. Orlando Wells is very funny.