I was asked recently if using “The Shopping and F***ing of the jazz age” as the strap line for The Vortex is just a piece of sensationalism, this is Noel Coward after all! Well, I don’t believe it is at all an unjustified quote and, if you’d like to read it in context, here’s Charles Spencer’s full article from the Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/drama/3671468/The-Vortex-Noel-Cowards-hothouse-drama.html
As Mr Spencer explains in his review of last year’s West End revival, Mr Coward could be “daringly experimental” and this is something that I am enjoying exploring together with the cast of The Crescent’s forthcoming production.
Almost every line has several levels of meaning and there is much that is unsaid between the characters as they swirl downwards in their vortex of beastliness. Of course, the trademark frothy comedy is there (in bucket loads), but this really is a beautifully crafted play that keeps on throwing up surprises.
Looking back from our own, very different age where in-yer-face theatre is almost commonplace, it’s hard to imagine how a play could be considered for banning by the Lord Chamberlain. The one thing that still rings true to our own age, though, is the nature of the conflict – the lack of understanding, the addictions, the obsession with youth – and it is this that makes this a play for today just as much as it was a play for the generation seeking to come to terms with life in the years following the Great War.
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