THE VORTEX.
London.
THE VORTEX
by Noel Coward
Apollo Theatre.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Wed 3p, Sat 4pm.
Runs 2hr 5min Two intervals.
TICKETS: 0870 040 0080.
www.nimaxtheatres.com/vortex (booking fee by ‘phone and online).
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 March.
Finely-detailed revival of early Noel Coward drama.
“All these colours,” declares a visitor, of Florence Lancaster’s London drawing-room. “All what colours?” I ask, looking at the grey surrounds of Alison Chitty’s set. But if this is a play under-designed, that’s better than distracting over-design.
Chitty solves the three-set budget problem by limiting the built-up parts of each room as the play voyages from its opening Wildean drawing-room comedy, through a private party in the Lancasters’ country residence to the Ghosts-like bedroom trauma between aging social butterfly Florence and her addict son Nicky.
Peter Hall’s revival reveals all the tones in a play which shocked in 1924. It wasn’t just the tactfully-unseen white powder, but the critique of the kind of society which frequented theatres; Florence talks repeatedly about attending First Nights, seeking glamour by association.
Desperation underlies even the opening comedy, Barry Stanton’s Pauncefort holding on to the hand of a young man just too long, Annette Badland’s society singer forcing her personality (besides giving the first example of, legal, drug-taking) loudly all-round, her energetic mask slipping just momentarily.
Hall has these people comment on the servant Preston (possibly the only sane person around) while she’s still in the room, a nice detail of their arrogant self-absorption. It’s amazing to see Coward so savage about self-obsession only a year or so away from turning it into the Blissful comedy of Hay Fever.
Each detail counts: first act references to Nicky’s tiredness, or the contrast between warm words and colder looks when his mother meets his fiancée Bunty. Desperation soon shows in the middle act, Florence using the offer of First Night tickets to tempt her toyboy Tom.
Even Helen, the most sensible person in the company, relies on alcohol in the final act, preceding the mother-and-son confrontation. Dan Stevens plays this with the urgency of someone seeing the doom lying ahead.
But it’s Felicity Kendal’s Florence that commands attention. From the busy start where she thrives as centre of attention from visitors and ‘phone calls, to the final smeared makeup and challenges from Nicky, Kendal reveals the layers of self-deceit in Florence and her ultimate empty misery.
Preston: Vivien Keene.
Helen Saville: Phoebe Nicholls.
Pauncefort Quentin: Barry Stanton.
Clara Hibbert: Annette Badland.
Florence Lancaster: Felicity Kendal.
Tom Veryan: Daniel Pirrie.
Nickt Lancaster: Dan Stevens.
Davis Lancaster: Paul Ridley.
Bunty Mainwaring: Cressida Trew.
Bruce Fairlight: Timothy Speyer.
Director: Peter Hall.
Designer: Alison Chitty.
Lighting: Paul Pyant.
Sound: Gregory Clarke.
Music: Mick Sands.
Movement: Laila Diallo.
Assistant director: Tom Littler.
2008-03-06 01:31:11