The Vortex

Description

A single-volume edition of one of Coward's masterpieces, published to tie in with major Donmar Warehouse production in December 2002 In The Vortex, Coward explores the darker side of the Cocktail Party set. Emotional blackmail, drug abuse and shattered relationships are minutely observed in this disturbing, early piece from a playwright whose sharp eye was more usually turned towards the light. This first ever single-volume edition of this frequently revived Coward play ties in with the major revival directed by Michael Grandage, starring Francesca Annis and Chiwetel Ejiofor and Indira Varma at London's Donmar Warehouse. "Here is a piece which is the dernier cri in the theatrical mode, un peu shocking perhaps, but no less popular on that account" James Agate

Noel Coward was born in 1899 in Teddington, Middlesex. He made his name as a playwright with The Vortex (1924), in which he also appeared. His numerous other successful plays included Fallen Angels (1925), Hay Fever (1925), Private Lives (1933), Design for Living (1933) and Blithe Spirit (1941). During the war he wrote screenplays such as Brief Encounter (1944) and In Which We Serve (1942). In the fifties he began a new career as a cabaret entertainer. He published volumes of verse and a novel (Pomp and Circumstance, 1960), two volumes of autobiography and four volumes of short stories: To Step Aside (1939), Star Quality (1951), Pretty Polly Barlow (1964) and Bon Voyage (1967). He was knighted in 1970 and died three years later in Jamaica.

All the anxiety of the early 1920s, post-war twitchiness glossed by martinis and mannered cigarettes, is caught in Noel Coward's The Vortex. His central characters are like specks of dirt approaching the plughole of a draining bath. The closer they get to the hole, the faster they spiral. Daily Mail One of the mysterious things about Noel Coward, and one of the sure indications that he is a great writer, is that he constantly takes you by surprise. Daily Telegraph The Vortex (1924) was the play that made his name and firmly established him as both a dramatist and an actor - he'd been at pains to ensure the play included "a whacking good part" for himself - and it was the roaring twenties equivalent of today's socalled in-yer-face theatre, the Shopping and F***ing of the jazz age. Daily Telegraph Of all Noel Coward's plays The Vortex is the only one whose shock appeal has survived more or less intact. Evening Standard Noel Coward's The Vortex is his darkest play: a remarkable combination of shallow and deep it's a drama that wipes the smile from its own face. Observer