“Everybody worships me, it’s nauseating.” Read more …
Matinée idol Garry Essendine has it all: wealth, fame, good looks, a nice line in witty repartée and a splendid selection of dressing gowns. The centre of his own universe, he has more fans than he knows what to do with. The fact that he’s also vain, egotistical, foul tempered and on the brink of middle age tends to get overlooked...
Garry is about to embark on a tour of Africa when a series of domestic complications threaten to overwhelm him. A star-struck ingénue refuses to accept her beautifully enunciated marching orders after one night of passion; the predatory Joanna, having worked her way through Garry’s male entourage like a cat in a doocot, now has Garry firmly in her sights; and an obsessive avant-garde playwright locks onto Garry like a limpet mine...
Can Garry’s hyper-efficient assistant Monica and his glamorous, not-quite-ex-wife Liz rescue him from the grasp of these passionate admirers? Does Garry even want to be rescued?
Coward’s sublime comedy of manners is a howlingly funny exposé of celebrity life. Sharp, stylish and knowing, and peopled with some of his most memorable comic creations, Present Laughter is Coward at his very, very best!
It is, in John Durnin’s beautifully paced production, all tremendously good fun.
Joyce Grenfell attended the first production in Edinburgh in 1942, starring Noel Coward as Garry Essendine, the role he wrote for and about himself: “ a perfect piece of escapist froth, quite beautifully played and with such speed and polish. Wildly funny, witty and sometimes wise.” Just what I would say about this sparkling revival at Pitlochry.
Handsome but long and shapeless.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry from Saturday June 1, 2013, until Wednesday October 16, 2013. More info: www.pitlochry.org.uk
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