Saturday, 23 February 2008.
Noel Coward's breakthrough play, The Vortex, is back in London, this time starring TV's Felicity Kendal in the central role of Florence Lancaster in a fairly by-the-books revival by Peter Hall. Though she hams it up at times, Kendal has a ferocious onstage demeanor and a raspy voice that helps her spit lines with an admirable sharpness.
The play centers around Florence, ever a failure in her adulterous love affairs, and her son Nicky Lancaster, newly addicted to cocaine. The two resent each other throughout, coming at the end of the play to a half-hearted promise of mutual redemption.
Dan Stevens as Nicky and Cressida Trew as Bunty Mainwaring, the object of his affection, bring youth and charm to the production, and Daniel Pirrie is churlishly charming as Tom Veryan, Florence's younger lover.
The first act contains all the nail-biting as we wait for the inevitable; the second act is the picking up of the pieces.
The sets are drab: unobtrusive and merely serviceable.
In the end, I found the production reasonably accomplished considering the triviality of it all. Weighty subjects are tossed around lightly -- one of Coward's biggest gifts. But the resolution, all treacle and no tenacity, is lacking in earnestness -- Coward's fault.
Forgive the actors; the lines are set in stone.
No comments:
Post a Comment