Coward Plays - (World Classics) by Noël Coward (Paperback)

About the Book

The first volume in the Coward Collection, introduced by Sheridan Morley.

Book 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', '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

Review Quotes

"He is simply a phenomenon, and one that is unlikely to occur ever again in theatre history" --Terence Rattigan