PRESENT LAUGHTER By Noël Coward
To explore Coward’s world, and to see some of his rare archive material, visit the NoÍl Coward Room. Book an appointment at noelcoward.com/cowardroom
WELCOME
Katherine Kingsley, last seen here in The Rehearsal and as Lina Lamont in Singin’ in the Rain, plays Liz Essendine; and Tracy-Ann Oberman plays Monica, returning after her Golde in in Fiddler On The Roof (Festival 2017).
DANIEL EVANS AND RACHEL TACKLEY PHOTOGRAPH BY TOBIAS KEY
We are delighted to open Festival 2018 with Present Laughter, a comic masterpiece widely regarded as Noël Coward’s most autobiographical play. At Chichester, we have a proud tradition of producing Coward, beginning with Look After Lulu (1978) through Cavalcade (1985), Point Valaine (1991), Relative Values (1993), Blithe Spirit (1997), Easy Virtue (1999), Tonight at 8.30 (2006) and, most recently, Private Lives (2012). We are also thrilled to welcome Sean Foley back to Chichester to direct. Sean’s hit West End productions include The Painkiller, Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (Olivier Award for Best Comedy), The Ladykillers, The Dresser (seen at Chichester in 2016) and the multi award-winning The Play What I Wrote. Sean has assembled a terrific cast including actor and comedian Rufus Hound, who plays Garry, returning to Chichester following Neville’s Island (2013).
Though best known for his popular comedies there is also a serious side to Coward. Alongside this production we have scheduled a number of one-off events under the banner, Celebrating Noël Coward. On 28 April, we present a reading of Peace in our Time, a rarely performed piece, which imagines life in post-Second World War London if Nazi Germany had succeeded in occupying England. Post Mortem, on 19 May, examines the fate and legacy of the soldiers who suffered the horror of the First World War trenches. On 12 May members of the company present Noël’s War, which explores Coward’s war experiences in his own words with songs, letters and diary entries. We hope you can join us for some of these thought-provoking events and that you enjoy today’s performance.
Artistic Director Daniel Evans
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Executive Director Rachel Tackley
COMING SOON
Penelope Keith Amanda Root Oliver Ford Davies
THE CHALK GARDEN By Enid Bagnold
25 May – 16 June #TheChalkGarden
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COMING SOON
Matt Lucas Caroline Quentin Alex Young
ME AND MY GIRL Book & Lyrics by L Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber Book revised by Stephen Fry with contributions by Mike Ockrent Music by Noel Gay
2 July – 25 August #MeAndMyGirl
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TH E CAFÉ & THE FOYLE TERRACE The Café in the Festival Theatre is open daily from 10am serving freshly made sandwiches, soup, cakes and pastries. Enjoy our barista coffee or choose from a range of hot and cold drinks including wines and beers. The Café is light and airy and offers al fresco seating and free Wi-Fi. The Bar and The Foyle Terrace in the Festival Theatre are open 90 minutes before the show and both serve a selection of locally produced spirits, beers, lagers and wine by the glass or the bottle. The Foyle Terrace also serves pizzas, quiches, jacket potatoes and salads before the show.
The Brasserie in the Minerva Theatre is open for pre-show dining in new stylish and elegant surroundings. The restaurant serves a contemporary British menu using local and seasonal ingredients as well as an excellent choice of wines. Open 12.30pm - 2.30pm on matinee days and from 5.30pm for evening performances.
Enjoy either a main meal or one of our lighter food options before or after the show in the Minerva Bar & Grill upstairs, which offers a more relaxed atmosphere. Open 90 minutes before matinee performances, from 5pm for evening performances, during the interval and post-show.
RESERVATIONS
To reserve a table in the Brasserie or Minerva Bar & Grill visit cft.org.uk/dining for online reservations. Alternatively please call 01243 782219 or email dining@cft.org.uk
PRESENT LAUGHTER By Noël Coward
MAD ABOUT THE MAN We have been so seduced by the image of cocktails, the rustle of silk dressing-gowns and insouciant effortless quips that the sheer scale of Noël Coward’s achievements is not always fully appreciated. His excellence as actor, writer, producer and stage director plus revue artist, songwriter, cabaret performer and film director is quite astonishing. Perhaps the musicals haven’t been performed as frequently but there is no sign of the comedies such as Present Laughter, Private Lives, Hay Fever or Blithe Spirit falling out of favour and they remain as secure in the repertoire as they appeared in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Coward was a precocious stage-struck boy actor and that, to an extent, is what he remained, with the occasional outburst of brattish temperament. Given his success in so many different fields of entertainment, it’s as if he’s a composite of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Steven Spielberg, Stephen Sondheim and Laurence Olivier, Cecil B de Mille and Rodgers and Hart. Yet he was also a man of notable contradictions. Coward gave the impression of being the modish contemporary man about town, the epitome of the debonair playboy and yet he worked ferociously hard, often ending up in a spectacular nervous breakdown. He cured himself by disappearing into deserts and jungles where Nature was at her most primitive. For all his poise and charm when cultivating the chatelaines of ‘The Stately Homes of England’, he was born into genteel poverty in the humdrum riverside suburb of Teddington, the son of a piano salesman who seems to have played only a supporting role in the life of his brilliant son. It is Coward and his devoted mother who were the dominant characters in this family group. His education seems to have been patchy but he had an innate talent for the University of Life rather than collecting NOËL COWARD AT HIS WRITING DESK, 1935
academic qualifications. Only Wilde and Shaw could challenge him for the perpetual brilliance of his wit that has kept him in the spotlight for more than a hundred years. What makes Coward such a contemporary figure is his flirtation with the media which helped him construct a personality for himself at odds with the real man. He was assiduous in cultivating the Press and was only too happy to provide a regular supply of good copy for the starving journos of the day. Inevitably there came a time when the hacks grew less co-operative and delighted in cutting Coward down to size, much to his chagrin. However, Coward could hardly complain about the treatment meted out to him because of the image which he had worked so hard to foster.
They are bound by the ties of friendship which swing into evasive action when the autonomy of the group is threatened It says much for the sometime insularity of the theatrical profession that Present Laughter and This Happy Breed were due to have their dress rehearsals on consecutive days at the end of August 1939, only a few days before Mr Chamberlain made his fateful broadcast of the Declaration of War. Coward did not have to go on one of his jungle adventures for the subject of this new play which he pithily described as “a light comedy in three acts”: he merely had to explore his own personality in this story of matinee idol Garry Essendine and the