A MAGAZINE ABOUT THE LIFE AND WORK OF SIR NOËL COWARD • NOVEMBER 2011

NOËL’S BIRTHDAY In the UK, 16th December. AGM at the Noël Coward Theatre, Richard Briers will guest at the flower-laying ceremony, luncheon at the Grand Saloon, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - AND Rebecca Caine and Stefan Bednarczyck in cabaret. In the US On the 17th, a screening at the Paley Center, New York, of a film not previously shown, with the flower-laying ceremony and luncheon on the 18th - not to be missed! THE GRAND TOUR A day in Birmingham - 30 June 2012 to see Coward’s ballet ‘The Grand Tour’ AND visit the Coward Special Collection at Birmingham University. HAY FEVER A date for your diary - Saturday 17th March 2012 for a matinée performance at The Noël Coward Theatre. Hay Fever stars Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Northam, Kevin McNally and Olivia Colman. - date confirmation and more to follow. STAR QUALITY The World of Noël Coward An exhibition that has toured the world reaches New York and will prove to be the most comprehensive yet! March through August 2012. Supported by a range of US Noël Coward events.

Noël Coward and Kay Thompson with ‘Matelot’at Goldenhurst PRODUCED AND PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL NOËL COWARD SOCIETY - 1- www.noëlcoward.net EDITORIAL he most exciting period in the world of Coward lies ahead of us as we move towards the end of the year and embrace 2012. Lindsay Duncan will play Judith Bliss in a new West End production of Hay Fever , the first time a Coward play has been revived in the Noël Coward Theatre since it was refurbished and renamed after him. The production, which is directed by Howard Davies, will play a limited West End season from 23 February (previews from 10 February) to 2 June 2012. We are arranging a matinée visit on Saturday 17th March to see the play - details to follow. The largest exhibition ever on Noël Coward and his work Star Quality - The World of Noël Coward will take place at The New York Public Library for Performing Arts at Lincoln Center from March to August with events taking place across the US as part of a festival of celebration. The Birmingham Hippodrome will be hosting the Birmingham Ballet’s interpretation of Coward’s The Grand Tour and both the UK and US branches of the society will be offering events around Christmas to rejoice on Noël’s birthday once more. Our thanks to those who came to our successful day in London where for some members the highlight was the tour of the Queen’s theatre ‘ actually standing on the stage of Les Mis! ’ For others the successful afternoon workshop on Coward’s plays and music at The Actors Centre. Can I thank everyone who renewed their membership in July and remind you that January renewals will be coming up before we know it. Please help us to keep the Society alive and flourishing by your support. John Knowles CONTENTS ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Playing With the Audience 8

Editorial and September 17th Event 2 From the Archive 11

Coward Birthday and Ballet - forthcoming events 3 Firefly 16

Bitter Sweet in New York 5 How I became interested in Noël Coward 21

A Few Don’ts for Directors 6 Coward on the Coast 22

Look Back in Pleasure 7 Family Album 25 WORDS AND MUSIC - NCS EVENT ON SEPTEMBER 17 ueens Theatre was the starting point for a Saturday adventure in the West End. Archivist Rosy Runciman welcomed us with coffee in the foyer where Noël’s ‘wings’ hang resplendent overlooking the staircase to the circle. Two groups of members were taken around the theatre where they saw ‘Marlene’s Room’ dedicated to Marlene Dietrich and used for entertaining small gatherings of theatre goers. The highlight for many was standing on the set of Les Miserables and looking out across the auditorium. After lunch in nearby eateries we gathered at ‘The Actors Centre’ for an afternoon workshop on acting led by Ian Cullen and Yvonne Quenet , who led us through warm-up exercises, tips on reading and performing a script and gave us a sketch from Noël’s London Calling - 'Growing Pains'.

Dominic Vlasto led us through ‘how to perform a Coward comic song’ with an emphasis on timing and pace and, with accompanist Celia Cologne, sang ‘Why Must the Show Go On?’, ‘Try to Learn to Love’, ‘Louisa’, ‘Has Anybody Seen Our Ship?’, ‘Marvellous Party’ and (most memorably) ‘Mrs Worthington’ in one of his best performances ever. Our thanks go to Rosy Runciman of Cameron Mackintosh Dominic Vlasto Ltd. and our teacher/performers Ian Cullen and Yvonne Quenet who provided such an entertaining afternoon. This approach to a day of linked but distinct events in London appeared to be a great success and marks a move towards similar NCS happenings in the future.

Ed. - 2- Birthday, Briers, Ballet... and Hay Fever Friday 16th December The AGM of the Society (10.45 for 11.15am) at The Noël Coward Theatre Richard Briers is our guest at the Annual Flower-Laying Ceremony (12.30pm) and afterwards for drinks with NCS members.

Luncheon & Cabaret (1.00 for 1.30pm) with Rebecca Caine and Stefan Bednarczyck in The Grand Saloon at the Theatre Royal

o come an join us at this year’s ‘Coward Birthday Celebrations’ in the UK when Richard Briers will lay flowers on the statue of Sir Noël Coward and meet members for drinks afterwards. Richard Briers is a distinguished actor, from the theatre, television and film worlds, whose early career led him to form a strong affection for Noël Coward. We are also delighted to welcome Rebecca Caine and Stefan Bednarczyck who will provide the cabaret after luncheon.

Rebecca Caine Richard Briers Uniquely, her career has been divided between Opera and Musical Theatre, making her West End debut at 19 in the role We also hope to be joined by a figure who has been a noted of ‘Laurey’ in Oklahoma! She then sang the role of ‘Eliza’ in director of Coward’s work to talk about his life in the theatre. My Fair Lady on the National tour. While making her debut at Glyndebourne as ‘Amor’ in L’incoronazione di Poppea , she Our special guests include Robert and Pirjo Gardiner was asked to join the Royal Shakespeare Company where she (Robert is Chairman of Noël Coward Ltd. and a trustee of the created the role of ‘Cosette’ in Les Miserables . After a Noël Coward Foundation). successful West End run she joined the original cast of Phantom of the Opera to play ‘Christine’ opposite Michael We also welcome broadcaster and passionate scholar of the Crawford. She then returned to Toronto to repeat the role in the music of Noël Coward, Alan Farley who is travelling from San Canadian premiere of Phantom . During her run in Toronto she Francisco to be with us. joined the Canadian Opera Company to make her highly praised North American debut in the title role of ‘Lulu’. Annual Luncheon and Cabaret Stefan Bednarczyck Tickets £75 MENU Stefan is an actor, director, pianist and accomplished cabaret performer. He performed for Graham Payn at his 80th birthday Potted Scottish salmon confit of lemon and cracked celebration and is a notable performer of Coward’s songs. His pepper, served with blinis performance and consequent recording of his show on Flanders and Swann won numerous plaudits. Slow-roasted Gressingham duck leg with parsnip puree sticky shallots, string beans and Oxford sauce A reviewer at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival states: “But it was a singer-pianist Stefan Bednarczyk who impressed Traditional truffle recipe on a dark chocolate and most. . . In his second Noël Coward solo show one really saw almond sponge, dusted with cocoa powder and topped his full calibre: superb incisiveness and aliveness to every with a white chocolate flower . . . nuance of intellectual with, irony and tragic self-disclosure in Served with cafetiere coffee or tea songs such as;’Bitter Sweet’, ‘The World is Wide’ and of There is a vegetarian option as well. course, ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’. ” and still water These two artists are working together on a special programme Price includes wine/cordials/sparkling for us at our Annual Luncheon at the Grand Saloon, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

- 3- Saturday 17th March 2.30pm First Ballet , after which there will be a 25 minute HAY FEVER interval where we return to the restaurant for dessert. Second Ballet , after which we again return to the restaurant, 2.30pm for coffee. The Noël Coward Theatre Third Ballet , after which there is an optional extra for We are planning to provide an early members, if they so wish, at no charge: opportunity to see Howard Davies’ new interpretation of Hay Fever 5.15pm About ten minutes after the performance, an starring Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy opportunity for Members to see backstage at the Hippodrome Northam, Kevin McNally and and view some of the unique facilities of the Birmingham Olivia Colman. Details will follow Royal Ballet’s headquarters. nearer the time. Please keep an eye on our website for further details - Example prices and options for the day’s events: although we will inform you either by letter or Home Chat of the Lindsay Duncan Option 1 The Full Day , Birmingham University; lunch; planned arrangements. Matinee Ticket; and a programme, followed by a backstage tour: £65 per person . Saturday 30th June THE GRAND TOUR Option 2 Lunch and Matinee , Meet at Birmingham Hippodrome for 1pm for lunch, Matinee ticket, and a Birmingham University and Birmingham Hippodrome programme, followed by a backstage tour: £55 per person .

Please hold this date in your diary if you are intending to join Option 3 Grand Tour Matinee , Meet at 2.15pm in the Foyer us. The information contained in the last Home Chat and of the Birmingham Hippodrome, Matinee Ticket, and a shown again below remains correct as does the pricing. programme, with desert and coffee in the intervals, followed by Booking information will be available in the next Home Chat. a backstage tour: £35 per person Our thanks once again to Peter

Tod who with the help of Birmingham University January 28th and February 28th Stephen Duckham will be Noël Coward Collection Michael Law and The Piccadilly organising this event. Dance Orchestra 10.30 am Society Members At The Pheasantry and The Café de Paris meet on the concourse of New Street Station to take a coach On Saturday January 28th at The Pheasantry Michael Law to Birmingham University, and the Piccadilly Dance Orchestra will be offering an evening where we would be shown with a definite Noël Coward flavour. If you would like to go part of their Special Collection then you should know that NCS members can get a 12.5% on Noël Coward. discount on tickets that will only cost you £17.50. Ring The Pheasantry for reservations and further information, call: 12.45 pm Coach leaves the 0845 6027 017 and mention your NCS membership . University for the Birmingham Web: http://pizzaexpresslive.co.uk/popList.aspx Hippodrome. On February 28th our own Dominic Vlasto will be taking the 1.15pm Lunch will be served in the Theatre’s Restaurant. cabaret spot at a dinner/dance at The Café de Paris featuring Because of the long intervals with the ballet, we suggest Michael Law and the Piccadilly Dance Orchestra . Michael having the main course and a glass of wine before Birmingham is offering members of NCS another 12.5% discount on the Royal Ballet’s Summer Celebration . cover charge - plus the cost of the meal. Dominic will be accompanied by Stewart Nicholls on piano and will perform a Birmingham Hippodrome variety of Coward songs. For booking telephone: 020 7734 7700 Email - [email protected] Web: http://www.cafedeparis.com/club/whats-on Denys Robinson will organise tables for NCS with the Café de Paris. Mob: 07815 978534; [email protected]

Michael Law at the Café de Paris

- 4- U.S. CELEBRATIONS FOR NOËL COWARD’S 112TH BIRTHDAY n Saturday, December 17th at 2:30 PM there will be a special screening at The Paley Center for Media of filmed material of Noël Coward not previously shown. The screening will be followed by a “meet and greet” reception with refreshments. On Sunday, December 18th a celebrity will be laying flowers on the Coward Statue at The Gershwin Theatre, after which there will be a luncheon and cabaret at the nearby Manhattan Club at Rosie O’Grady’s restaurant. Please contact Ken Starrett for further details on these events at: [email protected] or 212/877-4259. The Paley Center in New York

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arly in his career as a writer, Noël Coward developed dancing with Lutte, he becomes more amorous and certain disciplines that he maintained throughout his life. passionately kisses her. Carl intercedes as Lutte draws his He saved everything he wrote for possible future use. sword. Carl is given a weapon and the two men duel. He is Not one to let a good idea go to waste, he would often mortally wounded and dies in Sari’s arms. recycle – a short story might become a play, or a verse might Fifteen years later, Lord Shayne is giving a party. The become the lyric for a song. In 1928 he wrote a scenario for a guest of honor at the party is Madame Sari Linden, the famous silent film entitled Concerto . The film was never made, but he European singer. The guests, including Hugh Devon, soon saved the plot, which cried out for music. A few months later realize that she is Sarah. She avoids the embarrassment of he added music and it became the operetta Bitter Sweet . meeting her ex-fiancée and goes into dinner with Lord Shayne. The play set in 1929, opens with a reception at the home of At this point four exquisitely dressed young men sing ‘Green Lady Shayne. One of the guests, Dolly, soon to be married to Carnation’ satirizing aesthetes of the ‘nineties.’ Sari comes Henry, becomes involved with Vincent. Dolly discovers a role back with Lord Shayne who proposes to her. For the guests model in the defiant Lady Shayne, who relates the story of her who have returned she sings Carl Linden’s song ‘Zigeuner.’ adventures in love and music. The scene flashes back to 1875 The next scene returns to 1929 at the beginning of the play as where a youthful Sarah Millick – the future Lady Shane – Lady Shayne concludes the story of her life. Dolly and her learns rapidly that love and marriage are two distinctly friends are left to make their own choices concerning life, love different things. Her secret love for music (and her music and music. teacher Carl with whom she sings ‘I’ll See You Again’) cannot This is a brief synopsis of the Bitter Sweet that opened at be reconciled with the fate preordained for her by her family. His Majesty’s Theatre in London on July 12, 1929 starring In the next scene Sarah’s mother is giving a ball. Carl is the Peggy Wood and George Metaxa. It had an extraordinary run conductor of the orchestra. Sarah, increasingly resentful of her of 697 performances. The Broadway production starring present life, breaks with her finance Hugh Devon, and leaves Evelyn Laye and Gerald Nodin made its debut on November 5, London for Vienna with Carl, the man she really loves. The 1929. In spite of the Wall Street crash on Black Thursday just action continues in Vienna in 1880 at Schlick’s Café. Carl and two weeks earlier, Bitter Sweet still managed a run of 159 Sarah (now Sari) are married. He is the conductor at the café performances. A Broadway revival in 1934 starred Alan Jones. and she is a dancer. The singer Manon La Crevette rehearses Since that time, there have been a scattering of concert with Carl as she sings ‘If Love Were All.’ She has an affection versions but very few full productions. St. Louis Municipal for Carl, but realizes how much he loves Sari. A Captain Opera presented numerous productions between 1933 and August Lutte, is very much taken with Sari, who resists his 1953 and lastly in 1974, Long Beach Civic Light opera in advances. Lutte puts pressure on Herr Schlick who agrees to California staged a production in 1983 starring Shirley Jones. make the arrangements for Sari to dine privately with him. She The Illinois Music Theatre did a lavish production in August of and Carl will lose their jobs if she does not do so. Later, while 2007. The San Francisco-based professional Gilbert and

- 5- Sullivan Company, The Lamplighters, gave its first production was given to four waiters in the café in Vienna in an earlier in April 2009. scene. The cast was made up of professionals, some with solid In the spring of 2011 Bard College announced a full operatic credits, and students of the music and drama production of Bitter Sweet as part of its summer festival in department at the college. Sarah Miller as Sari and William Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. It would be presented, Ferguson as Carl brought strong vocal talents to their roles. August 4 - 14, at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Amanda Squitieri as Manon gave a splendid performance of Performing Arts, a $65 million, three-theatre arts complex her songs ‘If Love Were All’ and ‘Kiss Me.’ The wonderful designed by Frank Gehry. For those who would never have actress, Siân Phillips, lent a note of dignity to the proceedings seen it, this was an eagerly anticipated production that sold out as Lady Shayne. In this production the role of Lady Shane, quickly. created for Ms. Phillips, and Sari are two different characters. At the outset, it was clearly a modestly budgeted In the original they are intended to be one and the same. production. The set was virtually a bare stage with a center Many of the book scenes seem to be played at an panel area that changed for various scenes. The time of play unnecessarily slow pace. Despite the faults of this well- was changed to 1969, flashing back to 1929, an era of totally intended production, it was nevertheless a chance to hear Noël different sensibilities than the 1875 of Coward’s original. Coward’s glorious music. It is music that has truly stood the Unfortunately, this took away some of the romanticism of the test of time. play. One major revision seemed puzzling. In the final act, the famous song sung by four titled gentleman, ‘Green Carnation’ Ken Starrett A FEW DON'TS FOR DIRECTORS by Barry Day

atching this production of Bitter Sweet - staged with Talking of which. . . loving care though it was - I found myself wondering what Noël would have thought. . . “Do Not Over-Egg the Omelette” I think a finger would have wagged and he would have said God is most definitely in the detail but even He “Do not over-intellectualise” . might suggest there should The original piece was produced and set in 1929, hence the be rather less of them. In a flashbacks to Victorian England - a period many in the real bar it’s more than audience would remember. But that's now such a long time likely that all kinds of lewd ago. Hey, what if we set it in the 1960s, so then we flash back and lascivious practices are to the 1930s with all those great costumes? That will bring it going on at any given closer to today's audience. moment. But this is a Because the 1960s has little appeal for the audience of 2011 theatrical bar - a setting for and the flared skirts and beehive hairdos an anaesthetic song and story - and woe Siân Phillips distraction and the 1930s were made increasingly betide you if you let the uncomfortable by the prospect of another “war to end all incidentals distract the wars”. Result - you've taken it out of comfortable nostalgia and audience from the main dumped it in a cultural no-man’s land. attraction. In this case a splendid Manon singing one of her big numbers, ‘Kiss Me’. “Do not let the Stars get in your eyes.” It was only one example of bit part players being It would be a pleasure aud a privilege to cast Siân Phillips encouraged to make too much of their ‘bits’. Over-embroider to read the Albanian telephone directory or anything else for and you lose the picture. Take the watch apart and you find that that matter and she does cut an aristocratic figure as the elderly you can’t put the pieces back together. Lady Shayne but. . . “Do Not Fix It If It Isn't Broke !” . . .the great coup de théâtre of the original was that the young Bitter Sweet is a Victorian valentine card and, if that doesn’t Sarah and the older Sari she turns into were played by the same appeal to your modern sensibility - leave it alone! Here is a actress . Clearly you can’t do that with Ms.Phillips - but she is world of memory, not reality. Did things ever really happen your star. So we’ll have her stand in the wings from time to that way? Wouldn’t it be nice if they had ? Wouldn't it be even time to keep an eye on what’s going on. (You see, she’s nicer if they still did ? watching her own life go by in memory.) But we’ve got to give Funnily enough, the tear-jerking romanticism of Sari’s her something else to do. Why don’t we have her sing world and a love that never dies has just as much appeal now ‘Zigeuner’? Now, there's an idea. Yes, but it's not a very good as it did then, perhaps even more in these trying times. idea. It's a full-throated operatic aria that Joan Sutherland could Perhaps someone will give us Bitter Sweet as Noël wrote it have handled - and later the young Sari does - but it’s too much - with no revisions and no apologies. And we can all check our for Ms Phillips and, in any case, it’s out of context. As is the disbelief at the door. placing of ‘Green Carnation’ - that wonderful pastiche of Barry Day Wildean camp - in the setting of a rather rundown Viennese cabaret. - 6- LOOK BACK IN PLEASURE Dominic Vlasto explores the legacy of the Coward Centenary Conference At Birmingham University he Birmingham University Conference of late Autumn Books and publications that contain original and thought- 1999, celebrating the centenary of Noël Coward’s birth, provoking analytical writing on Coward are rather few and far picked up on a wave of resurgence of popular interest in between. Perhaps writers have been put off trying by Coward’s Coward’s work. Indeed, our own Society was one own statement that he “always distrusted too much education product of the Conference and we may be said to have been and intellectualism; it seems to me that [intellectuals] are riding that same wave ever since. always dead wrong about things that really matter, however The outstanding revelation that I personally drew from right they may be in their literary and artistic assessments” attendance at that Conference was how inter-connected were (Diaries , entry for 21 December all the various facets of Noël Coward’s creative output; it is 1967). This is definitively not true, impossible to separate Coward’s musical creativity and Noël, about most of what is consider it in isolation from his “straight” dramatic work if any contained in Look Back in Pleasure . worthwhile assessment of his music is to be made. The same Good analytical writing does could be said the other way round – how can you make any emerge from time to time. John worthwhile assessment of Coward’s dramatic talent without Lahr’s Coward the Playwright , first also considering his music? - but interestingly at the published by Methuen Drama in Conference there was no musician among the distinguished 1982, is an excellent case in point. range of panellists and speakers, and I found myself the sole In five dexterously argued voice volunteering musical parallels to many points raised in chapters, Lahr (senior drama critic the discussion sessions. I was subsequently invited to make a of The New Yorker since 1992) musical contribution investigates all the major plays and to the book that many of Coward’s lesser-known emerged from the pieces. Hay Fever , Private Lives , proceedings, Look and Design for Living , for instance, make a fascinating group Back in Pleasure of “Comedies of Bad Manners.” Blithe Spirit and Relative (Methuen, 2000). Values raise the “Ghost in the Fun Machine.” And Lahr The papers explores the “politics of charm” oozing through The Vortex , contained in this Easy Virtue , and Present Laughter . Further chapters consider volume address in the patriotic plays like Cavalcade and This Happy Breed and some detail a wide examples of Coward’s later work, such as Waiting in the Wings range of approaches and A Song at Twilight . In all Coward's stage work, Lahr to and reflections on detects a coherent philosophy in which charm is both the Coward’s work. The subject of Coward’s comedies and the trap that makes his very contributors include public life a perpetual performance. dramatist David Frances Gray’s 1987 Noël Coward in the MacMillan Edgar, critic Michael Modern Dramatists series is another thoughtful analytical Coveney, biographer work. Both these authors have no difficulty in keeping their Philip Hoare, theatre readers entertained as well as focussed – how could you not scholars Peter write entertainingly when the Holland and Russell subject of your analysis is itself the Jackson, cultural art of entertainment, when you are historians John effectively explaining how a very Stokes and Alan amusing game is being played? Sinfield, drama and It is hardly new or revelatory theatre studies that there are strong elements of academics Jean Chothia, Frances Gray and Peter Raby, as well playfulness throughout Coward’s as directors Philip Franks, Philip Prowse and Sue Wilson, and work. He was first and foremost an performers Maria Aitken, Juliet Stevenson and Corin entertainer, and one who despite his Redgrave. Drama scholar Peter Raby’s tracing of the culture obvious personal ability to of country-house comedies that starts with Wilde, continues command and control an audience with Saki and reaches its zenith with Coward was for me a saw very clearly the vanities and particular pleasure (we may try to re-present this work here at a absurdities of his own profession. later date); but a central focus for several of the Look Back in Martin Amherst Lock picked up on this in his recent piece for Pleasure authors including playwright David Edgar was this magazine (May 2011 issue, page 9) on Relative Values , Coward’s technique of playing self-referential games with his commenting that a “surprisingly serious concern” of Coward’s audiences. This “metatheatre” was delightfully explored by “is acting. More than that of any other dramatist of his or Jean Chothia, and with grateful acknowledgements to Methuen perhaps any period, Coward’s theatre is preoccupied with publishers who have kindly permitted us to do so, we reprint theatre; whether writing about supposedly budding actresses extratcs from her essay Playing With the Audience in the such as Miss Worthington or supposedly retired actresses such following section of this issue. as Judith Bliss, of successful playwrights such as Gary - 7- Essendine or disenchanted movie-queens such as Louisa, Follow My Secret Heart’, ‘Nevermore’, ‘Dearest Love’, Coward loves to put into the follow-spot the vanities and ‘Where Are the Songs we Sung?’ and ‘Operette’ itself, a richly foibles of those for whom like himself the stage was a way of metatheatrical piece of song-writing. life”. Rather more obviously than this are all those songs which A recent Society day-event in London at which Celia deliberately set out to ape Edwardian era popular music and Cologne and I provided some musical items to illustrate a short which include the musical material ‘Has Anybody Seen our presentation by actors Ian Cullen and Yvonne Quenet entitled Ship?’ and ‘Men About Town’ from Red Peppers and not a few ‘Coward on Theatre’ gave me pause to reflect on just how items from the score of Coward’s last completed musical, The much of Coward’s musical output is also playing games with Girl Who Came to Supper (1963). This latter, like Bitter its audience. It seems to me that there are three main “types” Sweet , has some pastiche numbers, such as ‘Saturday Night at of song which do just that: firstly, there are the slick, fast- the Rose and Crown’, which are so devastatingly accurate moving, densely-lyric-ed comedy numbers which do not have within the style they ape that on any casual listening they are anything specifically to do with actors/acting, which mow the indistinguishable from “standard” material of the period. No listener down with their speed and technical brilliance and one to whom I’ve ever played ‘Saturday Night’ “blind” has craftily-designed comedic word-rhymes which play with an ever guessed that the composer could possibly be Noël audience’s expectations. In this category I would include ‘Mad Coward. Dogs and Englishmen’, ‘The Stately Homes of England’, It is almost impossible to quantify it, but I would reckon ‘Uncle Harry’, ‘There are Bad Times Just Around the Corner’, that this puts over half of Noël Coward’s catalogue of over 400 ‘What’s Going to Happen to the Tots?’, ‘Why Do the Wrong discrete musical pieces into one of the playful, theatrically self- People Travel?’ and many other similar comedy songs. The referential categories above. One is only left wishing that second category encompasses those songs which paint very more people were now familiar with Viennese operetta or clear character portraits or which are more obviously self- Edwardian-era popular musical styles so that they would more referential towards the acting profession. These include ‘Why keenly be able to appreciate Coward’s astonishing skill in Must the Show Go On?’, ‘I Wonder What Happened to Him?’, capturing their essence; but at least Coward’s continuing ‘A Bar on the Piccola Marina’, ‘Nina’, ‘Louisa’, ‘Marvellous popularity, and the wave of interesting productions and Party’ and ‘Three Theatrical Dames’; but easily the most performances of his work that have followed in the wake of the playfully self-referential song of all these, a song that has its Coward Centenary have given us the chance to hear much of own self-contained dramatic progression built into its lyrics, is this material again, and I’m sure it is true that it will be partly the full four-refrain version of ‘Don’t Put Your Daughter on the by means of work such as Coward’s that the musical sounds Stage, Mrs Worthington’. and styles of those periods will be carried into the future. However, the third and largest category of playful, I suppose all this begs the question, “so what is Noël metatheatrical song contains those which can be put under the Coward’s real, non-metatheatrical musical voice? Which items umbrella of “pastiche”, the songs – and other music without among his extensive musical output can be said to be least words – which capture a particular mood or style that was not sullied by referential elements, and show him using his own Coward’s to start with . What was he doing with the entire instinctive musical voice most clearly?” I’m afraid that score of Bitter Sweet , for example, except re-creating an entire answering this question will have to be left to a future time; but pastiche of the styles and sights and sounds of Edwardian- I will teasingly leave you with the thought that the answer may Viennese operetta? ‘I’ll See You Again’, ‘The Call of Life’, lie in some of his most filmic work. the wonderful cabaret waltz ‘Kiss Me’, the passionate ‘What is Love?’, the hauntingly Ruritanian ‘Zigeuner’ and even ‘If Love * Were All’ are all re-creations within a particular historical All the books mentioned/illustrated above are available sight-and-sound setting which plays directly to the audience’s through Amazon.com, though none are apparently still expectations and experience. Almost the entire scores, also, of current on their publishers’ lists. Conversation Piece (1933) and Operette (1938) are pastiche, and those two scores alone include the ‘romantic’ numbers ‘I’ll PLAYING WITH THE AUDIENCE Extracted from Jean Chotia’s essay of the same title published in Look Back in Pleasure (Methuen, 2000) n 1895 Bernard Shaw wrote of Oscar Wilde in the distance, perhaps, because each was – whether for reasons of Saturday Review: “In a certain sense Mr Wilde is our class, nationality, sexuality or a combination of these – an only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: outsider. with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and I suggest that Coward’s dramatic method invites the audience, with the whole theatre”. This recognition of the audience to join the game, while always reserving to himself ‘play’ in playwriting – play with ideas, with the audience and the right to startle with previously undisclosed rules. He with ‘the whole theatre’ – goes to the heart of Wilde’s writing overcomes the potentially scandalised Englishman in each of but is as appropriate to Noël Coward as it is to Wilde. Like us by leading us, as audience, to feel ourselves ‘insiders’, not Wilde, Coward was writing for performance in mainstream so much with the characters as with the dramatist. He makes theatre and he was also a re-maker, borrowing from and us conscious of the shaping consciousness behind the action. writing variations on other people’s works with immense This is simply exampled in Fallen Angels (1925), where it facility. They share a tendency to use and subvert traditional is revealed in the Act I that Julia and Jane, respectable married mores and theatrical structures, possessing the necessary comic women, have both, with typical Coward symmetry, kept secret - 8- from their husbands the existence of the same former lover, Laughter , ‘I’m always acting – watching myself go by’, and Maurice, with whom each is again in contact. In Act II, the thus prompted, we too begin to watch for his next piece of role women anticipate his imminent arrival with mounting play. Making Judith Bliss an actress and David Bliss a excitement. When the maid enters, Julia, in a frantic attempt to romantic novelist in Hay Fever gives Coward immediate signal to Jane the need for discretion (“Not in front of the access to convincing fictive invention. Some of the theatrical servants!”), abruptly changes the subject with: jokes in that play are directly between dramatist and audience – obvious in Judith’s promise to attend the ‘first night’ of JULIA: Yes, naturally depressing in November Sandy’s boxing match; more covert when her star vehicle, because of the fog. Love’s Whirlwind , shares its title with one of Arkadina’s in The Seagull , or when the end of the supposed extract from Love’s Jane’s reception of the signal is evident when she counters with Whirlwind that closes Act II, ‘Don’t strike! He is your the even more bizarre: father!!!’, echoes the closing lines of Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance . Other jokes derive from the shared language and JANE: But only if you pay your subscription in experience of the Bliss family and their propensity to switch advance. into melodramatic confession – or renunciation – mode. The tropes and clichés of popular fiction and drama are reworked While the non-sequitur serves to indicate their panic, our deliberately by the family for their own amusement and that of fleeting recognition of it as a non-sequitur lets us, the audience, the audience, who understand, and the horror of the guests, into the game. On the replay, at the maid’s next entrance, when who do not. Such quotation is acknowledged in Act I: thoughts of Maurice have become more fevered, we recognise the diversionary tactics, and the wonderful absurdity of the JUDITH: Be Victor a moment, Sorel – diversions, moreover, is itself diverting: SOREL ( rising ): Do you mean when he comes in at the end of the act? JULIA: And those hands – JUDITH: Yes. You know – ‘Is this a game?’ JANE: And teeth – JULIA: And legs! Oh, Jane! They then run through Judith’s scene so that when, towards the (re-enter Saunders ) end of Act II, one of the tormented guests, Richard, enters JULIA: The cushions of the carriages are always so during a hysterical argument and innocently asks ‘Is this a dusty. game?’, the audience is well ahead of the bemused guests as JANE: She ought never to have been burnt at the the family take the cue and rerun the sequence we, but not the stake because she was such a nice girl. house guests, encountered earlier. JULIA: I can hardly wait until strawberries come in again. Probably the most striking moments of meta-theatrical awareness come in Present Laughter , with, for example: The behaviour of Coward’s characters was frequently labelled ‘appalling’ by contemporary commentators – but there MORRIS: Anyhow, if it hadn’t been for our restraining is usually glee in the description. The discourteous frankness, influence you’d be in the provinces by now. the Strindbergian directness, of both male and female GARY: And what’s the matter with the provinces, characters is invigorating. It is quickly apparent that women in may I ask? They’ve often proved to be a a Coward comedy are as self-assertive, self-possessed or self- great deal more intelligent than London. deceived as men and, like Jane and Julia, as likely to seethe HENRY: Be careful! Someone might hear! with sudden desire, so that courtship and the battle of the sexes are waged on strictly equal terms. Similarly, if the minor - a sequence calculated to play equally well in London and the figures are stooges, they are drawn equally from both sexes: Provinces. Again, having encountered in Act III the the feeble flapper, Jackie, in Hay Fever is matched by the increasingly pressing and risqué advances on Gary, first of a stuffed-shirt diplomat Richard, the excessively womanly young woman, then a young man, each swearing absolute woman, Sibyl, in Private Lives by the manly man, Victor. devotion, then of the vamp, Joanna, proposing a relationship Sorel Bliss holds her own against brother Simon as effectively based not on love but on sex, the audience is in a position to as Judith fights with husband David. I can’t believe but that appreciate the exchange that follows the fourth ring on the after the first surprised recognition, the women, if not the men, doorbell: in the audience aren’t as cheered by the creation of Sorel or Amanda as they are by Hedda Gabler, by Rosalind and JOANNA: Who’s that? Millamant, or by Molière’s Célimène. GARY: With any luck it’s the Lord Chamberlain. Having taken the point that there is more dramatic energy, more theatrical originality, in the Bliss family than in their Energy in comedy comes in part from activity. The action in sycophantic guests, more fun and feeling in Amanda and Elyot Coward’s comedies, although it can seem frenetic, takes place in Private Lives than in the convention-bound spouses they largely in the dialogue, leading to successive permutations in betray, we want Coward to go further, to make them even more relationships which, while they may be increasingly forbidden, vividly outspoken, more daring or more monstrous in their we can hardly deny are increasingly appropriate. Characters behaviour. Without necessarily condoning their deeds, we are continually moving on: they are met while dressing to go respond to the dramatic energy inherent in their roles - we sit out; they find themselves sleeping in unexpected places; ill- forwards in our seats when these characters are on the stage. equipped, they have to borrow pyjamas; suitcases wait in the Coward’s characters perform, and we are led to recognise hall. Just arrived at a French coastal resort for their respective and relish performance. As Gary Essendine says in Present honeymoons, Amanda and Elyot must decamp to Paris.

- 9- Pursued by their respective spouses, they must make another beautiful and beautifully dressed actors displaying themselves hasty exit. Arguments erupt; couples fall into embraces or and, even as we register this, we probably find ourselves equally readily into physical fighting. The impression is of succumbing, lured, as he claimed to have been himself, by the impulsive reactions, of imminent revelation or collapse. What image of the woman ‘in a white Molyneux dress on a terrace in is distinctive is the panache with which these elements are the South of France’, but if so, the image endures because and combined and the control Coward exerts over the proliferating not in spite of the control of the writing in which it is set. complications. The security for the audience that is brought by Coward’s own famously low-key acknowledgement of his traditional farce elements is undercut by an untraditional major comedies – ‘on rereading them, I find them both directness of statement that cuts through the subterfuges of unpretentious and well-constructed’ – is very much to the point polite discourse. in any discussion of his dramatic craftsmanship and his What Peter Holland has called Coward’s ‘comic geometry’ associated capacity to draw in his audience. At his best, the is there to be recognised in the texture as well as the structure audience can’t but delight in ‘the achieve of, the mastery of the of Coward’s writing. The repetitions and mirroring of activity thing’. In his much-quoted 1961 Sunday Times article, and dialogue lead us to appreciate the artifice and ingenuity of Coward gave advice not entirely different from that which theatre. In Present Laughter , one ring on the doorbell is Gary Essendine offers the hopeful would-be playwright Roland followed by two more; one oath of undying devotion by Maule: ‘Consider the public. Treat it with tact and courtesy. It another and then another. Daphne’s explanation of her will accept much from you if you are clever enough to win it to presence in Gary’s flat and dressing-gown at the opening of your side (my italics) … Coax it, charm it, stimulate it, shock it Act I is told to three people in succession. When at the now and then if you must, make it laugh, make it cry and make opening of Act II Scene I Joanna, too, claims to have lost her it think, but above all dear pioneers … never, never, never bore latchkey we share Garry’s response of ‘Oh Joanna!’ and it the living hell out of it.’ It is the winning us to his side that might equally well be ‘Oh Noël!’ Private Lives , opening on to Coward does so convincingly in his most achieved comedies of identical balconies on to which two newly married couples manners. emerge from identical French windows with identical cocktails, leads on to a direct partner swap. The echoes, repetition-with-variation and patterning of the dialogue all contribute to the comedy of anticipation and pressurise the audience to recognise Elyot and Amanda as natural partners before ever they do themselves. Coward’s dialogue is compelling for the audience because of the remarkable way it dramatises pragmatics: the recognition that we often speak words which substitute for what we are actually thinking. Coward presents the gaps and inconsequentialities of normal conversation in intensified, more staccato form. In this he takes us into the world of post- Second World War drama. (The various breakfast table sequences in Fallen Angels and Private Lives are notable forerunners of the opening of Pinter’s The Birthday Party .) We are required to supply the feeling behind the lines but also the implication the characters are avoiding by means of their lines. When strong feeling is expressed, as in Elyot’s response to Amanda’s ‘How was the Taj Mahal?’, ‘Unbelievable, a sort of dream’, the audience is in a position to recognise the intensity Jean Chothia is Reader in Drama and Theatre in the University of behind the oblique utterance. Cambridge and Fellow of Selwyn College. She is the author of books The Observer critic who wrote dismissively in 1930 of on Eugene O'Neill; André Antoine, and English Drama, 1890-1940, as Private Lives ‘Their style is mainly in their clothes; as well as articles on English and European drama. Plays edited include a conversationalists they are mere back-chatterers’ could not volume of ‘New Woman’ plays for OUP and Shaw’s Saint Joan (New Mermaids). She is currently completing a book on the staging of have been more wrong. Although their style is also in their crowds. clothes. Coward was well aware of the erotic power of NOËL IN AUSTRALIA ince the sad demise of the Noël Coward Appreciation Society of South Australia we have been offering support for the Australian interest in Noël Coward, fostered so successfully by the ‘Appreciation Society’ stalwart and now NCS Representative for Australia, Kerry Hailstone and others. I will have the opportunity to meet both Kerry and NCS member Martin Wright when I visit Australia in January. As some may know my heart is now partly in that great country as, in common with Noël Coward Foundation Trustee Robert Gardiner, I have family there. So my daughter, currently at Queensland University and I will be journeying south to meet Kerry and Martin Wright in Adelaide or Brisbane for a few days. We can never replace a society rooted in the culture of a country that Noël himself enjoyed

so much - but we will try to strengthen the links we have and build our support for the Noël with a friend appreciation that still thrives for The Master ‘down under’. John Knowles

- 10 - FROM THE ARCHIVE The paper may be crumpled by time but the sentiments have remained crisp and true to today in these affectionate tributes from the Theatre Critics of the Daily Mail and The Times.

- 11 - - 12 - Items from Ken Starrett’s Coward archive (with more on the next 2 pages)

RIVATE LIVES starring Kim Cattrall and Paul Gross will be opening on Broadway in November. This brings to mind two items from Ken Starrett's Coward Archive. On this page is a whimsical cariacture by Al Hirschfeld. The article on the next two pages is an article from the March 1931 issue of Theatre Magazine written one month after the original Private Lives opened January 27, 1931. The photo below of Noel Coward and Laurence Olivier is a reminder that they were together in the original Private Lives .

In 1964 Al Hirschfeld created a series of caricatures for Playbill Magazine entitled Unlikely Casting. Eighteen Broadway stars were drawn as they might appear in unexpected roles, such as Carol Channing as Lady Macbeth, Beatrice Lillie as Ophelia, Peter Ustinov and Boris Karloff as The Odd Couple and Bert Lahr as King Lear.

Included in the series were:

Ethel Merman and Ernest Borgnine in Private Lives : “ Slightly unusual casting, I'd say. Definitely different, but I wouldn't mind it a bit. They're both such lively - such good performers that I'm sure that it would be quite interesting. Anything Ethel Merman does - whether in my Private Lives or the lass in Romeo and Juliet - would be alright with me. As for Mr. B., he strikes me as such a versatile actor that I could certainly visualize him carrying off the light comedy of Private Lives - or even the title role in Oliver! The notion is beguiling. By the way, whose idea was this?” - Noël Coward

Peter Tod pointed us towards this photograph on eBay. It shows Noël and Laurence Olivier at the opening of Hay Fever in Manchester in October 1964.

- 13 - - 14 - - 15 - Peter Tod gave a talk to the ‘Friends of Bath Theatre Royal’ on Noël Coward’s ‘Firefly’ on May 5 this year. FIREFLY He has very kindly donated his notes to Home Chat s your tour guide today, I have to ask that you keep up except for this one entry from his diary entry for it shows how with me – for we will going off on some windy tracks and the fascinating story of ‘Firefly’ starts to begin. thoughts, – but, I assure you we will always be returning “Before the house was completed, we’d often took a back to the house thermos full of cocktails up to ‘Firefly’ and sat and watched the Lunch today – very nice – but perhaps we should have sun set and the lights come up over the town (Port Maria) and started with a dry Martini cocktail, as I’m about to take you to it really was magical. The view is quite staggering as the sky ‘Firefly’ – Noël Coward’s Jamaican home. changed from deep pale green, and then all the colours went out, and out came the fireflies – like enormous jewels, and they Why a Martini? flit around us. ” What else could he call the house but ‘Firefly’ By the early 50s, Noël Coward was already living much of Before going out to ‘Firefly’, my only personal, very his time at his first home, ‘Blue Harbour’. ‘Blue Harbour’ is distant Coward anecdote. When in 1977, I was Director of down on the magnificent shoreline of Jamaica’s northern coast. Darlington Civic Theatre, I attended a literary lunch, and was ‘Blue Harbour’ was always busy; full with the ‘A’ list of seated next to Evelyn Laye – “Boo” to her friends, and celebrities, and the glamorous set of stage, screen, and New Coward’s leading lady in Bitter Sweet – the romantic and York. After a few years, Noël found that ‘Blue Harbour’ was a beautiful operetta he wrote in 1929, - complete with its “mad social whirl ” and becoming too crowded for him to work signature tune, ‘I’ll see you again’. easily, for, as he described in his diaries, - he needed “ valuable The wine waiter came round the tables, and asked Miss peace ” to be creative. Laye if she would like a So in 1955 he set out about liqueur? She graciously to find a hideaway retreat, and declined, - and I asked for a quite by chance, he found a ‘Crème de Menthe frappe ’. nearby site with a completely Evelyn Laye them ruined house - some 1200 feet immediately touched my arm above ‘Blue Harbour’ on and whispered confidently, ‘Firefly’ Hill. ‘Firefly’ hill was “That was Noël’s favourite essentially now completely drink ”. overgrown with scrub plantation So back to the plot! of woodland, banana and Throughout my theatre career breadfruit trees. I have always been interested Noël Coward eventually in Noël Coward’s work, bought this commanding 10 particularly his plays. Back in acres site from Blanche 1969 when I was starting out, Blackwell for £150 – and, was to I was an Arts Council Theatre commission the clearing of the Administration trainee, and vegetation; the building of his was seconded to the Marlowe home, and establishing the Theatre in Canterbury, and gardens that lead down to tiered had the opportunity to get a terraces below. gallery ticket for the special In between engagements, midnight matinee productions, and film cameo performance at the Phoenix appearances, in the last decades theatre where 150 of our of his life he spent his summers greatest artistes celebrated at his permanent home at Les Coward’s 70th Birthday. Avants in Switzerland, and was This was back in the “dark in this magical Caribbean setting The statue by Angela Connor of Noël Coward, at Firefly ages” days - before the that where he “wintered” every introduction of credit cards – year; - until on 26th March and I couldn’t afford both the 1973, he died, in his sleep at ‘Firefly’. A few days later Sir cost of the rail ticket and the theatre ticket. So alas I never Noël Coward was finally laid to rest in his garden, which went. However, that Midnight Matinee story doesn’t quite end overlooks the Spanish Main. there. ‘Firefly’ Hill has played a significant part of Jamaican Unknown to virtually everyone, there was one private live History, as for centuries it had been a sacred burial site for the recording made specifically for Noël Coward – and about two Tainos – the tribe of Arawak Indians – who were some of the years ago it was found. Last year the recording was released first settlers in the Caribbean islands. More latterly, the hill’s on a CD entitled, ‘A Talent to Amuse’. This title, ‘A Talent to prominence, commanding position and vistas proved a perfect Amuse’ was of the title of Coward’s authorised 1960 “look out” over the ocean for the notorious and legendary biography by Sheridan Morley – being a line in one of his Jamaican Pirate, Henry Morgan. lyrics from Bitter Sweet ; and are the words inscribed on his I don’t intend to dare quote Coward’s original word’s, memorial stone placed near Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. - 16 - That 70th Birthday week, - back in 1969 - which Coward later found myself going up a very rough and bumpy road to was subsequently to refer to as “Holy Week” also included the reach ‘Firefly’. Savoy Luncheon where Lord Louis Mountbatten proposed the So come with me now, past the white wicker gated lodge- toast to Coward that’s printed in your menu. house, and into to the ‘Firefly’ gardens. The first find is Noël Coward was a life long friend of the Mountbattens, the Cowards simple grave. As you can see from your menu cover, Kents and, the Queen Mother – who was also due to give a Coward’s resting place is certainly ‘A Room with a View’. private luncheon for him at Clarence House that birthday week. That particular musical number was written in Hawaii for the However, she was laid low a very bad cold, and sent a 1928 production of This Year of Grace – long before he knew charming message to him reading ‘ that she hoped he would Jamaica. manage with her daughters ’. It was at this lunch that Her Majesty the Queen asked him Why Jamaica? if he intended to accept the knighthood that the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson had offered him; A few weeks later, in the 1970 As most of you loyal theatregoers will probably know, Noël New Year’s Honours list, Noël Coward’s knighthood was Coward was born on in Teddington, on the outskirts of London announced. on 16th December 1899. He was christened Noël, - as his Of all his great theatre contemporaries, Laurence Olivier, Mother thought it an appropriate name for a birth so near Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, Noël Coward was the last Christmas. to be granted a knighthood. His parents had met in the church choir, and Noël’s father From early on in his career Coward kept prolific diaries, was a piano tuner. By the age of 8, aided, by his formidable many of them published. However, somewhat surprisingly, he Mother, Noël Coward’s theatrical career had begun, making his did not continue keep his diaries going after his 70th Birthday. London debut in The Goldfish , and then in the original What however does remain today is a vast collection of production of Where The Rainbow Ends , and, by 13 he was priceless Coward original material – early drafts, manuscripts, playing Slightly in Peter Pan . press reviews, notes and huge volumes of business and Coward had his first play I’ll leave It To You staged, and personal correspondence. Coward kept a London Office going which he also appeared, in 1920 at what was then called the throughout his life, - run by Lorn Lorraine - his loyal manager New Theatre, and later changed its name to the Albery Theatre. and friend for over 40 years. A considerable amount of the Only a few years ago, that same theatre, in St. Martin’s Lane, Coward archives now are fortunately housed in a Special was bought by Sir Cameron MacIntosh, and after beautifully Collection at Birmingham University, - the catalogue listings restoring the whole theatre, he renamed it the Noël Coward alone running to 100 pages. Theatre. When you next go there, do visit its stalls bar - for it A couple of years ago, you will recall that, here at the contains some precious gifts, awards and honours given to Theatre Royal you had, after its’ successful London run, the Coward. moving and very clever production of Kneehigh Theatre After an early start as a child actor, the rest of his quite Company’s of Brief Encounter directed by Emma Rice. remarkable talent and achievements over the next seventy Towards the end of the war, his original one act play, Still Life years is theatrical history and an unsurpassed legacy, - was made into David Lean’s iconic film, retiled, Brief Including, over fifty plays and musicals, screenplays, songs, Encounter and starred Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard and verse, and two and a half volumes of his published Stanley Holloway. autobiography. Lord Mountbatten’s birthday tribute to Coward After Bath and a long UK tour; that Kneehigh production says it all so succinctly. of Brief Encounter , with all its’ original cast, opened in San With his ever growing successes – both artistically and Francisco, before moving to off-Broadway in Brooklyn, and financially - that Coward enjoyed, – for ultimately he became then transferred into Manhattan, before moving again to play the highest paid entertainer in the world – there he had one Broadway itself last year at Studio 54 for another “sell out” particular problem that had to be continually addressed, - and season. one which we all know about. Namely, that of Income Tax – in his case on his earnings and the royalties from all his works. What have all these diversions to do Crippling. with Coward’s ‘Firefly’ you may well Eventually he had no alternative but to become a tax exile. Also, throughout the forties and fifties the British Press, ask? particularly Beaverbrook’s Express, gave Coward a very hard time about his tax avoidance arrangements, and, questioned his I went out to New York in December 2009 to help the war record. producers with the first New York opening of Brief Encounter , In retrospect, this was somewhat surprising, as at the and at the first night I met Geoffrey Johnson, - a very close outbreak of World War 2 he was recruited and posted to Paris friend of Coward’s - who was up at ‘Firefly’ earlier in the to feedback intelligence reports for the Foreign Office. His evening that Coward died. committed war service, was to take him round the world Geoffrey. who met Coward when Sail Away was on its pre- extensively, - and often exhaustively - entertaining our and Broadway tour, subsequently ran Noël Coward’s New York allied troops on the front lines, besides doing significant fund- office, and today still looks after his affairs and interests in raising performances for our war charities. America. His own experiences of ‘active service’ in both the first and In a conversation with Geoffrey I told him that it had second world wars was first hand, - so he well knew the “pain always been an ambition of mine to go and visit “‘Firefly’”. and agony of war”, and, the impact on him was very often Then about a year ago, I was asked by the Executors of Noël reflected in his writings, not least in his 1942 film, In Which Coward’s Estate if I would like to write a report on ‘Firefly’ for We Serve – which is based on Lord Mountbatten’s own war them? I was delighted with the opportunity, and some months - 17 - service in the Mediterranean on HMS Kelly – Not only did he down there. write the screenplay, he co-directed and appeared in it. In fact, The heart of ‘Firefly’ was his study, filled with books, this film was the wartime achievement that Coward was almost scripts and memorabilia – and his desk is still there today, and most proud of. is where he wrote all his work on his portable Remington Post-war Britain changed many things, including the style typewriter. of theatre – resulting in Coward being less popular and in Next door is the wonderful Music Room, – a romantic demand. room, the centre piece of which is two grand pianos Much of his work was now on the other side of the Atlantic, in New York, - and eventually headlining in Las Vegas. Noël Coward moved to Bermuda, He still kept properties in London and his home in Kent, - Goldenhurst Farm, - (which is now owned by the entertainer, Julian Clary). However, irrespective of the convenience, climate and beauty of the island, - because of his celebrity value, Bermuda gave him little peace nor privacy. In late wartime 1944, whilst working in New York, doing radio broadcasts as one of our countries ambassadors, Coward had a very bad bout of flu, and friends sent him to Jamaica to recuperate. He became instantly addicted to the island, its people, and above all its climate, and vowed to return again, and again, which he did. Jamaica was first discovered by Chistopher Columbus on April 4th 1494. and, the island had been a British Colony since 1658 – and remained so until its independence in 1973. In 1948, following the flop of a revival of Tonight at 8.30 on Broadway, which starred Coward and Graham Payne, and from which they both needed a holiday to recuperate. So they both had another holiday in Jamaica, this time staying at ‘Goldeneye’, the home of his friend and fellow spy, the writer, Ian Fleming. Coward somewhat cruelly renamed the house, “Golden Eye, ear, nose and throat! ” Coward now so loved being back in Jamaica he quickly A stage in the construction of Firefly decided to have his home in Jamaica – a few miles along the coast from ‘GoldenEye’. Last autumn, under Chris Blackwell’s patronage - (Chris of (dovetailed back to back), and above all, enjoys the most Island Records and Bob Marley fame), ‘GoldenEye’ was re- panoramic of views from two huge picture windows, cornered opened as a magnificent, idyllic, – but so discreet, - hotel at right angles to each other. complex, which I would now describe as “beyond five star It was up at ‘Firefly’ that Coward wrote and composed super deluxe!” some of his later musicals and songs, including one of his big Coward bought his land, to the east of ‘GoldenEye’, and musicals, Sail Away – which starred Elaine Stritch, and was to built a property that he was to name, ‘Blue Harbour’ – a good- play New York and subsequently in London at the Savoy. Noël sized property, down on the shore line. Later he expanded the Coward’s talents on Sail Away extended even further – right house, put guest cottages in the grounds, and had built what down to designing the show’s poster. must have been one of the first “infinity” swimming pools. Also worked on up at ‘Firefly’ were many of his later So it’s not perhaps surprising that ‘Blue Harbour’ soon successes, including Nude with Violin , Look after Lulu , and, the became a Mecca for Coward’s friends, and, the post war very accurate comedy about retired actresses in a retirement “celebrity set” of the stage, screen, and New York society. home, Waiting in the Wings . This comedy is rarely seen these By 1955 Coward decided that ‘Blue Harbour’ was days, for with 19 in the cast it is too expensive for producers to becoming too crowded for him to work - he needed that stage. “valuable peace ” to write, compose, work and paint. His Within this time span Noël Coward contributed to High lifestyle was always to rise very early and work undisturbed Spirits – a musical version of his comedy Blithe Spirit , and until at least noon. completed his novel Pomp and Circumstance – where his The Coward link with ‘Blue Harbour’ remained until his talents extended to also designing the dust jacket for the death, for always his friends and guests stayed down at ‘Blue published book. Harbour’, but came up daily, after 12, to ‘Firefly’ for a Whilst in Jamaica, he took time out for performing his glamorous life around a beautiful swimming pool, his study, hugely successful cabaret seasons at the Desert Inn in Las and the music room. Vegas. He first did cabaret in Vegas in 1955 to unashamedly Essentially, ‘Firefly’, in this stunning location is probably earn big money to pay for his lifestyle. That first Vegas season best described as a “modest” house. Essentially Coward lived was to prove a turning point in both his fortune and his career. alone in the house - for there is only one bedroom at ‘Firefly’ – 1964 saw his popularity in the UK revived, when Laurence and it was only towards the very end of his life that his Olvier asked him to direct his Hay Fever for the opening housekeeper and a gardener lived in a nearby dwelling. season of the National Theatre, which played at London’s Old Interestingly all the rooms in the house were built on Vic Theatre, before having its permanent home on the South separate levels, so you go up one step here and a few steps Bank in the early 70s. Coward’s own production of Hay Fever

- 18 - had Dame Edith Evans heading the cast as the eccentric Judith generally painted indoors because he didn’t like the nuisance of Bliss. the wind blowing, or, flies settling on his canvases. In 1966 he wrote his last play – and up at ‘Firefly’. Entitled I am absolutely no authority on paintings, but I, in my very A Suite in Three Keys he also played the lead when it opened in uneducated way, would describe his style as a cross between London at the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. Forty LS Lowry and David Hockney. Fascinating. His two closest friends, his secretary Cole Lesley and actor Graham Payne also painted, so much art was Jamaican Harbour painted by Noël Coward created up at ‘Firefly’, - and judging from the diaries – often very competitively between them. He painted, using bold, strong colours, - many of his roofs are painted in bright red; his people often represented in the style of Lowry’s matchstick men. Above all, he created wonderful seas, skies, and vistas – capturing that special light of the Caribbean. Perhaps more importantly he recorded the rural lifestyle of Jamaica as it was in his lifetime. Throughout his lifetime, Coward never sold any of his paintings – although he gave some away to special friends. It was only in 1988, some 15 years after his death, that his Executors sold at Christie’s, 28 paintings from his collection – with all the ¾ million pounds proceeds raised all going to the Cowards chosen charities. Now when an original Coward painting comes up for sale, there is significant interest. At ‘Firefly’ today, throughout the house, and in the studio there are still many of his original six years earlier he had also previously appeared in the lead his paintings. With no air conditioning in the house, perhaps not own play on the London stage. the best conditions to keep them safely – given the humidity. Because back in 1959 he sold his home in Bermuda and However, all the pictures are, and so represent Noël took up Swiss residency, his time in Britain had to be limited to Coward’s ‘Firefly’. 13 weeks a year in order to comply with our taxation laws. On the menu, you will see Coward’s potter’s plate – from Always working creatively, rarely still, he also managed to which he picked his colours; The picture of rowers in a fit in his memorable “cameo” appearances in films including, training rigger, obviously has been influenced from his earliest Our Man in Havana , Bunny Lake is Missing , and in 1969 his days in Teddington, which is on the Thames. last movie role, as the criminal mastermind in The Italian Job His affection for Kent is seen in the large painting of a with Michael Caine. ‘typical village pond in winter’ which hangs proudly behind So you see why he needed that “ perfect peace ” that the grand pianos. There is no shortage of Coward’s reflections ‘Firefly’ gave him. of all Jamaican life – for beaches, foliage, and village life were Coming back on my tour of the house we go downstairs. all captured prolifically in paint. The dining room at ‘Firefly’ is intriguing for it is an open On my visits to ‘Firefly’, I was allowed complete access to dining room, consisting only of three walls! The fourth wall everything in the house. One morning, when alone in the doesn’t exist, for it is completely open to the elements, studio, I was examining some of Coward’s unfinished overlooking the back gardens, and affords diners an amazing canvasses – and, on picking one up, an enormous lizard view westwards, watching the spectacular Jamaican sunsets go suddenly jumped out from the back of the picture! I don’t down. know who got the bigger fright – me, or the poor lizard!! The kitchen at ‘Firefly’ is what you and I might describe as Now we walk out of The Studio, and onto the back terraces, a “galley kitchen” – for the food for ‘Firefly’, was all prepared and round the house, back into the front gardens, where at the down at ‘Blue Harbour’, and brought up ‘Firefly’ Hill. top of the hill, just below the house, there is the Coward statue. Next to the Dining Room, is a garage – well, after all, you In 1999, to mark the Centenary of Noël Coward’s birth, a have to somewhere to keep a Rolls Royce, and a jeep! statue by the sculptor, Angela Conner, was commissioned. Next door to the garage, is perhaps still my second There were three bronze casts made of Coward sitting favourite room – Coward’s studio. Today complete with some imperially in his natural pose – complete with cigarette in of his paintings, easels, paints and brushes. hand. One statue was sited on the lawns above his grave at As well as being a prolific writer, Coward throughout his ‘Firefly’. The second copy is in the foyer of the Theatre Royal, life was also a prolific amateur painter. He started painting Drury Lane, London – where in 1931 Coward staged his epic from an early age, in watercolours, but later his friend Winston entertainment, Cavalcade . Churchill encouraged him - and later suggested that he work in The third copy of the statue is in the foyer of the Gershwin oils. Then the famous artist, Clemence Dane started to tutor Theatre on Broadway in New York – also a home to many of him. his successes. Much later on he started to work with acrylic paints. Each December, on the anniversary of his birth, there is a Interestingly, he eventually had to paint wearing a thin glove formal flower-laying ceremony at two of the 3 statues – usually on his right hand as he had become allergic to oil paint. Also he performed by a luminary from the theatre world.

- 19 - After Coward’s death in 1973, his close friend and partner, two gardeners working away in the distance – for all the lawns the actor Graham Payne decided he didn’t have the heart to and shrubbery need much attention, given the heat and keep ‘Firefly’, and very generously gifted “ the ‘Firefly’ house humidity. and estate ” to the Jamaican Nation, in appreciation of In finishing, I touched earlier on Coward’s delightful 1965 Coward’s love of Jamaica, with the hope it would be turned musical, Sail Away . In that show there is a great song ‘Why do into a national monument. the wrong people travel and the right people stay at home?’ All I can just say, perhaps somewhat indiscreetly, is that Should you ever be one of the “wrong people travelling”, Jamaica National Heritage is not quite our National Trust! and happen to be enjoying a Caribbean cruise nearing Jamaica, Over the ensuing years, ‘Firefly’ unfortunately came into a do if possible, take the opportunity of going on an excursion to very sorry state. ‘Firefly’. However in 1993, Chris Blackwell, whom I mentioned Meanwhile, thank you for firstly, for continuing your earlier, took a lease on the ‘Firefly’ property. He restored the support to the Theatre Royal here in Bath, and thank you property back to its former glory, and opened it back to particularly for coming with me today up ‘Firefly’ Hill – to a tourists. Chris Blackwell was in a unique position, for his unique house that will always have a very special place in the Mother, Blanche Blackwell, (now 100 and living in London), 20th Century’s history of writing, literature and the Theatre, - was one of Noël Coward’s closest friends, and as a child, for the appeal of Coward’s work will never diminish. Chris, had spent a lot of time up at the house and in its’ swimming pool, so also has “real” memories of ‘Firefly’s Three post talk anecdotes: glorious past. Including the occasion when his Mother, Blanche, had to lend Noël, the silver, cutlery and crystal when As I said, Ian Fleming’s ‘GoldenEye’ last year was The Queen Mother came to lunch at ‘Firefly’ – as Coward’s undergoing this transformation into what will be surely now best china and cookery had all been shipped back to his now rated as “a world class hotel”. When I was out there, work was permanent home in Switzerland! well underway in the extensive grounds. Besides being able to To this day, Chris Blackwell still finances and maintains chat on James Bond’s beach, what I thought was so touching ‘Firefly’. However, he, the Jamaican authorities, and the Noël and lovely, was that throughout the vast estate, there was a Coward Estate are now considering the best long term future huge collection of trees. Ian Fleming started a tradition for ‘Firefly’. whereby all guests to ‘Firefly’ would plant a sapling tree, and In the 38 years since Coward died, tourism needs in alongside there would be a simple wooden plaque indicating Jamaica have radically changed; the quality of “the displays” the persons name, - often a celebrity, or family member-, in any public building are now so improved; and, the “visitor purpose of visit and date of planting be it for their wedding, experience” anywhere, has to be particularly “special” in a holiday, birth of a child, or grandchild’s achievement. I very competitive tourist market. It will be interesting to see thought this such an imaginative and living gesture – making how the story of ‘Firefly’ unfolds – for of course, his grave will the woods surrounding “GoldenEye” even more fascinating. always be lovingly looked after there. Tourists incidentally, eventually, managed to find there way Deliberately diverting to “Coward Today”, you might not up to ‘Firefly’, but Coward - as I explained both needed and be aware but royalties are payable on any creative work, and as valued his privacy. On one occasion tourists were found such copyright entitlement exists for 70 years after death. wandering into ‘Firefly’ without an invitation, Coward decided Today representing all of Noël Coward’s interests are The to surprise them, and, suddenly he appeared completely naked! Estate, The Noël Coward Foundation, and, the Noël Coward – much to their alarm and embarrassment. Needless to say that Society - for Coward enthusiasts like me worldwide. put a stop to uninvited guests trying to see inside “‘Firefly’”. The Noël Coward Estate controls all the copyrights and the As we started this afternoon on Martinis – we might as well licensing of all Coward performances and his work world finish with them. At ‘Firefly’, Noël Coward would offer his wide. guests Martinis as a pre-dinner drink. The reaction was often, The Noël Coward Foundation was set up in 2000 as a “Oh these are rather strong ” and Noël would respond, Charitable Trust by his partner, Graham Payn. Coward’s “No, - it’s the altitude! ” Foundation has the specific intention of educating future Peter Tod generations in the Theatre, and encouraging them to be aware of Noël Coward’s work. Not all the Foundation’s awards are restricted to Noël Coward activities, and The grave of Sir Noël Coward at Firefly in the 10 years since it was set up it has had massive impact in both the UK and North America. Finally, The Noël Coward Society is there for those of us who want to know more about his work. My own, now deep, interest was triggered by attending a weekend’s study conference in Oxford, - an event which the Society organised a few years ago. I’m quite sure that Stephen Duckham, their Membership Secretary would be very pleased to hear from any of you! So, now with a last look at the Coward statue, we must take our leave of ‘Firefly’, its gardens and views, and say, “goodbye and particular thanks” to Annette, - ‘Firefly’s so faithful housekeeper and guardian today. We should also give a wave to the

- 20 - HOW I BECAME INTERESTED IN NOËL COWARD Martin Wright responded to our request for the reasons behind our members’ passion for Noël with his own route to The Master first became aware of the works of Noël Coward as a “How wonderful, just what I wanted . . . ” schoolboy in England during World War II, when for a On this memorable occasion I opened the box to find it birthday present I was given a 78-rpm vinyl record of empty. Noël singing two excerpts from his musical, Operette . There followed what seemed like an eternity of frantic ad- One side of the record, ‘Where are the Songs We Sung’, failed libbing before the missing dressing gown was to make any impression on me. The other side, however, unceremoniously flung onto the stage from the wings. Since consisted of ‘The Stately Homes of England’. which I that day I have always made a point of meticulously inspecting considered to be hilarious - and which I immediately my off-stage props before each performance. committed to memory. Moving to South Australia in 1975 I was surprised to find The sequence beginning: how popular Coward was “Down Under”. Before very long I “Though the pipes that supply the bathroom burst was appearing in productions of Blithe Spirit and Hay Fever . I And the lavatory makes you fear the worst also played the role of Dr. Alec Harvey in Brief Encounter for It was used by Charles the First. . . .” , the Adelaide Festival Fringe. could not fail to appeal to my schoolboy sense of humour. In 1982 I participated in the revue Cowardy Custard at From that day onwards I became a devotee of the works of Adelaide’s Q Theatre. One of my numbers was ‘Mad Dogs and “The Master”, and ‘The Stately Homes’ is still one of my party Englishmen’, in which I appeared clothed in traditional pieces (which now also includes such items as ‘Mrs colonial garb complete with pith helmet and holding a rifle Worthington’, ‘Mad Dogs’, ‘Nina’, and ‘I Wonder What loaded with blank cartridges. Happened To Him?’) This I was asked to fire into the air before settling myself My first appearance in a Noël Coward play was in 1963 onto a shooting stick and performing the number surrounded when I played the role of Nigel in Relative Values at the by chanting natives. Just before the dress rehearsal I was Avoncroft Dramatic Society in my home county of informed by the Stage Manager that in order to fire a blank Worcestershire. Written in 1956, Relative Values was also cartridge on stage I was required by law to first acquire a gun relatively new, and as his first comedy since Blithe Spiri t could licence. Having spent my National Service with the British claim to have been the beginning of the Coward renaissance. I Infantry in the 1950s, I was unfazed by having to attend the recall that, as the local travel agent, I suggested to the producer local police station to undertake the necessary oral test before that the word ‘Stratocruiser’ (the aircraft in which Don Lucas being granted the licence. I cannot recall the exact phrasing of had crossed the Atlantic in order to be with Miranda) should the questions I was required to answer, but they followed this be replaced with the up-to-date ‘Boeing 707’ - to which he pattern: agreed. “You should not prop a loaded rifle up against a wall My most unforgettable Coward memory - and one which because: still haunts me to this day - was during Nuneaton’s St Nicolas a) it may scratch the paintwork Players’ season of Present Laughter , in which I played the role b) it may accidentally discharge itself and kill of Garry Essendine. somebody As I am quite sure all Home Chat readers are aware, there c) etc etc etc . . .” is a scene in Act I in which Garry greets his wife Liz on her return from Paris with the words “Good morning darling, Needless to say, I passed with flying colours. where’s my present?” On being told that “It’s a dressing gown for Africa” Garry In 1997 I was privileged to escort a tourist group to the excitedly opens the proffered box, at the same time exclaiming: island of Jamaica, where I made sure that a visit to ‘Firefly’ was included in our programme of sightseeing, We duly arrived at the Master’s last resting place where, to the astonishment of Martin Wright performing “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” in the the other visitors, I decided on the spur of the moment to Adelaide’s Q Theatre’s 1982 production of “Cowardy Custard” perform ‘Mrs Worthington’ on its hallowed lawns. I was even asked to perform a Coward number in the Adelaide Repertory Company’s 2008 production of Dad’s Army , in which the producer decided that ‘Could You Please Oblige Us With A Bren Gun’ would make an appropriate interlude between two of the acts. For many years I was a member of the ‘Noël Coward Appreciation Society of South Australia’ (now sadly defunct) - the brainchild of that indefatigable Coward enthusiast, Kerry Hailstone (whose name features in this magazine as the Society’s Australian representative). At the Swan Song performance at the final meeting of the Society in Adelaide, Kerry and I performed ‘I Wonder What Happened to Him?’

Martin Wright - 21 - COWARD ON THE COAST Peace in Our Time by Noël Coward

October 20 – December 11, 2011 The Antaeus Company presents the U. S. Première of Barry Creyton’s new adaptation Directed by Casey Stangl

Casts, Opening Nights and Special Events NCS Events: October 23rd and 30th Coward Society members are invited to attend two special The Antaeus Company of North Hollywood, CA has a events: long-standing practice of double casting each production. They have announced the two casts for Peace in Our Time , October 23, 2011 named " Epps Cocoas " and " Stubbs Specials ", appearing in 4 PM. A celebration of the opening performance of Peace in performances in rotation on Saturdays and Sundays. Using an Our Time on Sunday, including the gala post-show reception Excel algorithm, Antaeus will mix and match the casts on with Antaeus’ artistic team and performers. (Ticket price = Thursdays and Fridays, calling the combination " Gordon's $75.) Gins ." October 30, 2011 Epps Cocoas 11 AM – 1 PM. Cowardly Lines , a pre-show symposium on Emily Chase • Kendra Chell • Chris Clowers Coward and his works, Sunday morning in the Deaf West John Combs • JD Cullum • Paul Culos • Jason Dechert Theatre. Featuring Barry Creyton (actor, director, author, and Etta Devine • Drew Doyle • Joseph Fuhr adapter of Peace in Our Time) with Kathy Williams, U.S. West Christopher Guilmet • Graham Hamilton Coast Liaison for the Noël Coward Society. Plus, a 2:30 PM Jason Henning • Steve Hofvendahl • Raleigh Holmes matinee of Peace in Our Time . (Symposium is free; matinee Danielle Jones • Susan Boyd Joyce • Lily Knight ticket price = $29 for NCS members/ $34 for non-members.) Peter Larney • Richard Levinson • Zoe Perry Joanna Strapp • Amelia White For more information on these two NCS events, contact Kathy Williams: email kathywilliams@noëlcoward.net or Stubbs Specials phone 650-529-9050. John Allee • Daniel Bess • Bill Brochtrup • Josh Clark Chris Clowers • Mark Doerr • Karianne Flaathen ______Eve Gordon • Belen Greene • Anna Mathias Rosalyn Mitchell • Rebecca Mozo • Rob Nagle The Antaeus Company Ann Noble • John Francis O'Brien • Melinda Peterson Deaf West Theatre Philip Proctor • Jesse Sharp • Brian Tichnell 5112 Lankershim Blvd Rebekah Tripp • Patrick Wenk-Wolff • Abby Wilde North Hollywood, CA 91601 Buck Zachary 818-506-1983 antaeus.org Click on the performance time for any date in their online Box Office calendar to see the cast list for that show: Tickets Thursday/Friday at 8 PM...... $30 http://antaeus.org/calendaroctober11.html Saturday 8 PM/Sunday 2:30 PM...... $34

Two casts, two opening performances per cast. Antaeus kindly offers a $5 per ticket discount to NCS members The opening night shows on Thursday, October 20th (Epps) for performances after October 26th. Mention the code “NCS” and Friday, October 21st (Stubbs) are primarily for “Family when you order your tickets. and Friends” and include a splendid party after the show with ______food and wine for the audience and cast. Gala opening shows on Saturday, October 22nd (Epps) and Sunday, October 23rd Metro/Parking (Stubbs) feature a lavish post-show reception. Critics and press Easy Metro access: Red Line, North Hollywood stop (a few will be in attendance all four nights. blocks north of the theatre). Parking available across Lankershim in the Citibank lot.

- 22 - Nearby Dining stage as part of its 16th annual Midsummer Drama Several restaurants are within walking distance of the theatre, Festival, and critic Katherine Von Blon threw bouquets: including: “… a story filled with heartbreak, over which the indomitable courage of dust-doomed humanity rises Eclectic Wine Bar and Grille exultantly through the sheer passion of spirit. ... Vajda’s 5156 Lankershim Blvd. sympathetic grasp … and her professional direction of the 818-760-2233. cast of 40 resulted in a genuine tour de force.” http://www.eclecticwinebarandgrille.com/ 1950 was a big year for Coward in Pasadena: The Times Federal Bar in November noted that Vajda’s playhouse staging of one 5303 Lankershim Blvd. of his more representative comedies, “Present Laughter,” 818-980-2555. was that play’s “western premiere.” http://www.thefederalbar.com/ A quick Google (“Los Angeles Times Peace in Our Time”) will Pitfire Pizza lead you to the Los Angeles Times blogs that describe the 5211 Lankershim Blvd. upcoming Antaeus production of Peace … and reveal earlier 818-960-2949 productions in California. http://www.pitfirepizza.com/locations/ For the latest from Antaeus about Peace in Our Time, you may Well worth a drive. For a nice dinner, try Firenze Osteria, read their blog, tweet or read tweets, and follow them on featuring Top Chef Season 5 Fan Favorite, Fabio Viviani. Facebook: http://antaeuscompany.wordpress.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/#!/AntaeusTheater . Firenze Osteria ______4212 Lankershim Blvd Toluca Lake, CA The Young Idea Project (TYI) 818-760-7081 Phase III: Autumn 2011 http://firenzeosteria.com/firenzeOsteria.html Young Antaeus actors featured in Peace in Our Time ______

Background For a third year, the Noël Coward Foundation has once again Written in 1946, Noël Coward’s Peace in Our Time opened 64 generously provided grant funding to The Antaeus Company years ago at the Theatre Royal, Brighton (July 15, 1947), in support of training for selected young actors studying moved to the Lyric Theatre, London on July 22, then to the Coward and his work. The culmination of Phase III is the Aldwych Theatre on September 29, where it ran for 167 actors’ performance in the fully-staged production of Coward’s performances. Although it has been referred to as a “flop”, play, Peace in Our Time, adapted by NCS member Barry Coward called Peace in Our Time a “moderate success” in his Creyton. Directed by the award-winning Casey Stangl, Peace introduction to Play Parade, Volume Five . in Our Time is the season finale for Antaeus, running from October 20 – December 11, 2011. Past Informative: News of Past Productions of Peace in Our Time in SoCal Training The October 5, 2011 Los Angeles Times “Culture Monster” Phase III training covers a wide range of skills and enrichment: blog notes that 62 years have passed since the earliest known fight training and choreography by Steve Rankin (famed for productions of Peace in Our Time in California: two popular his extensive work, including many Broadway shows — Jersey productions at the Geller Theatre, one in 1949 and another in Boys , Guys and Dolls , and Henry IV at the Lincoln Center 1951 (…Times critic Von Blon liked it again, citing it as one of Theatre to name just a few); accent and dialect coaching by the year’s highlights on the L.A. theater scene…), and a run at Tracy Winters, honing the specifics of German accents plus a the Pasadena Playhouse in the summer of 1950. Those shows multiplicity of British dialects (from the Ritz to the Anchor and are also the most recent productions in Los Angeles, until now. Crown); plus, individual and group coaching by members of the Antaeus Company and by adapter/project mentor, Barry Coward does not mention these productions in his diaries, nor Creyton (direct transmission of lore from The Master himself). is there word of them in his autobiographies, biographies, or in Mander and Mitchenson’s Theatrical Companion to Coward Of special note is a personal presentation on what it was like to (updated by Barry Day and Sheridan Morley in 2000). live in a country under Nazi occupation. Guest speaker Irene Robinson addressed the entire cast of Peace, telling about her The Times writer, Mike Boehm, describes hearing about the childhood in Paris during World War II. Hiding in a stairwell Pasadena Playhouse production from actress Valerie Reynolds, with a cousin who rescued her, Irene watched as her mother who was cast at age 15 (in 1950) to play a young tart who was dragged away by the Gestapo; for the rest of the war, Irene fraternizes with the enemy; the article continues with a lived “underground,” passing as a non-Jew, constantly description of a highly-favorable review and the “western vulnerable to exposure and deportation to a death camp. premiere” of another Coward play: Young Actors and Their Roles in Peace in Our Time A visit to Times archives turned up a review, dated July Of the 46 actors in the cast, 22 are young actors participating in 15, 1950, and headlined “Coward Play Impresses.” The TYI this year. Four of the actors who have been with the playhouse mounted “Peace in Our Time” on its main project for all three years spoke with me recently on the phone.

- 23 - Several themes emerged: continuity, community, connection, provides, starting with Classical Styles workshops, covering and development of understanding of Coward and his six playwrights, including Coward. Through Classical Styles characters. and three years of TYI, Rebekah has studied Coward, his plays, and the time period, and she feels extremely fortunate to be Kendra Chell (Alma Broughton) folded into the world of Coward. Speaking about Peace, she is delighted to be a part of this rich, moving, and darkly humorous production. Rebekah appreciates the ensemble family that developed from the cast of the 2010 workshop, eleven of whom are in the current production.

John Francis O’Brien is pleased to be playing “Billy Grainger” for the third time. As part of TYI, he read “Billy” in 2009 and played him in the 2010 workshop. John feels he has grown with the part, both as a human being and an actor, emphasizing a huge difference between two summers ago and now. This is his first opportunity to Kendra Chell was “Janet Braid” in the 2009 TYI reading of work on the same Peace; she plays the role of “Alma Boughton” in this character for such a John Francis O’Brien (Billy Grainger) production. Kendra commented on the aspects of TYI that have period of time, and it been most helpful and educational: this is the longest duration has amazed him to discover new things each year and find new she has worked on a single play, and she values the opportunity choices within the character. In the reading, his focus was on to live with and become comfortable with a script and a story. Billy’s feelings, especially in relation to his experience as a The characters Alma and Janet are best friends, so it is a fun POW. For the 2010 workshop, with coaching from Barry change for her to switch roles. Additional high points: dialect Creyton, John began to open up to Billy’s humor, and in training by Tracy Winters, plus coaching by Barry Creyton, current rehearsals, he is finding a way to joke from the moment who pointed out to her the importance of the minutiae: a he first arrives on stage and collapses. Although Billy is “typically English” propensity to “make a mountain out of a injured, John treats him as a person with great eagerness to molehill and a molehill out of a mountain,” in particular, relate to the people in the pub, relishing the ability to tell his finding humor in the bleakest of situations. story without fear of being hit or tortured. Instead of being a dark, damaged character, John’s focus is on revealing Billy’s Rebekah Tripp (Janet Braid) boyishness and playfulness and his joy at being with his parents even though he can’t talk to them without destroying his “cover” (a new name and identity protect him from being arrested by the Nazis.)

Raleigh Holmes read the “frumpy sister” role of “Hilda” in Easy Virtue in 2009, her first time performing Coward’s work. Cast as the glamorous cabaret singer “Lyia” for the 2010 workshop of Peace, Raleigh’s style and vocal ability matched beautifully with the three Coward Rebekah Tripp enjoyed the role of “Sarah Hurst” in the 2009 songs she learned for TYI reading of Easy Virtue . In 2010, she played “Janet Braid” the role: London Pride, in the workshop of Peace and was cast in that same role this Most of Ev’ry Day, Raleigh Holmes (Lyia Vivian) fall. Rebekah spoke of the great grounding that Antaeus and Come the Wild PHOT: Karianne Flaathen

- 24 - Wild Weather. She commented that before TYI, although she Antaeus Company Mentors had read and studied some of Coward’s plays and knew a A special word of thanks to Antaeus Company members who couple of the most popular songs (Mad Dogs, Mrs have been mentors to the young actors for both the 2010 Worthington), she had no idea that Coward had composed such workshop and this fall’s production: Josh Clark [Fred an impressive catalogue of great songs (from Don’t Let’s Be Shattock], Lily Knight [Nora Shattock], Melinda Peterson Beastly to the Germans to Most of Ev’ry Day). Raleigh [Mrs. Massiter], Philip Proctor [Mr. Grainger], and Anna especially appreciates coaching from Harry Groener on her Mathias [Mrs. Grainger]. musical numbers, finding new things in the songs each time they work on them. Kathy Williams

These page are available for any member to itemise publications, recordings, events and anything else connected with Noël Coward’s name and work in which they have played FAMILY ALBUM a part or wish to recommend to NCS members.

Dear John, in the 'thirties' I had my own PR firm. During that Christmas of 1940, the Gowries had invited a small house party including We thought it might be of interest to NCS members to know Noël Coward, a shipping magnate named Neil Mc Kechran and that in the July edition of Sight and Sound published monthly his Austrian Jewish wife who had luckily escaped from by the British Film Institute, the Archive page is devoted to the Hitler's clutches ..there was also a General and of course, my discovery at the Library of Congress of a cache of 100 hours of in-laws, including my sister in law who was married to an recordings of TV plays from the 1950s and 1960s, previously Australian airman. thought lost forever. It includes a production of Fallen Angels . During the introductions all of the Bracegirdle family were Some of the titles are included in a programme currently introduced to Noël Coward and I remember my mother in law running at the BFI Southbank until 29 June, entitled Missing was visibly thrilled when he said," What a splendid name!" Believed Wiped Special: UnLOCKed The Library of Congress On that particular day, it was extremely hot and the Discoveries . All will shortly be available on the BFI government house party went out for a special "royal" picnic. Mediatheque. Noël asked if he could spend the day in Yerrollummla to Unfortunately, the article does not give any details about discuss some of the background of his work for the Red Cross the production of Fallen Angels , and when I was in the BFI with me as |I had recently seen off my husband to the Library last week the item had still not been mounted on the Mediterranean in Perth. ...where 20 troop ships had left for Mediatheque. Looking at a list of 1960s TV productions I their dangerous task ahead. wondered if it might be the 9 October 1963 production within This was a special treat for me as I had been going to all the the BBC Festival series, directed by Alan Bromley and starring Coward plays for years when working in London and knew Ann Morrish, Richard Thorp, Ann Beach, James Villiers, most of the words of Red Peppers by heart. We had a little Moira Redmond and David Ritch? discussion about how I felt as a "pommie" and I assured him that they were all so warm hearted with a wonderful sense of David and Kate Bovey humour; I was sure he was magic with words and would captivate them! Not long after this, I told him how much I had Dear Secretary, enjoyed Tonight at 8.30 . There happened to be a grand piano in our cool sitting room and he said, “Let's try out a few songs!” I The perennial and well loved Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward is and he insisted that I should sing with him. I said could we in the news again and as the daughter in law of the original sing, ‘Has anyone seen our ship’ and I remember we got on to Captain Bracegirdle, I feel I must open a little window on a ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ and I asked him about the few days of Noël Coward's life which may be directly related Carabous ....to which he replied, “I don't know but they rhyme to this play. with snooze!” Consequently, he changed this to kangaroo for During the Christmas break,1940, I had the great privilege the troops. A little later, we found all the government house of working with Noël Coward when we were both staying in staff from the butler down to the ‘tweenie maid’ had been Yarralumla Canberra, the residence of Lord Gowrie/ Governor listening at the door and much against his conscience, the General of Australia and his wife, Lady Gowrie, President of butler accepted, along with all his staff, to join in the singing the Australian Red Cross. for a while and I think we sang the Australian National Anthem My father in law, Captain Leighton Bracegirdle, was which he'd especially learnt. The butler swore me to secrecy , known as the Military and Official Secretary despite the fact he “..I don't know what their excellencies would say if they knew was a Naval Officer later to become, Sir Leighton after he we had intruded?!” He was a butler in the truest sense, served with the Duke of Gloucester. Remains of the Day style! As you can imagine, I am now a very old lady of ninety The rest of the story is contained in the extract of my five and I am also registered blind, but in those far off days, I autobiography which is yet to be completed . We also spoke had just arrived in Australia myself as I was married to about the amazing Austrian lady who seemed to penetrate your Leighton's son Warwick....a gunnery officer in the Royal soul when she looked you. I told her that Lady Gowrie had Australian Navy. confided to me that the Austrian was a seer. I worked after my arrival in Australia in June 1940 as the "Would you like her to tell you your future?" Noël asked PR officer for the Australian Red Cross for whom Noël me and knowing my husband was now in grave danger, I Coward was to give his memorable performances for the shivered and said," No, I have to live from day to day". I think departing troops. I was also speech writer for Lady Gowrie for he felt the same. I believe Mrs Mc Echran might have been the inspiration for Madame Arcarti. I still have a copy of his - 25 - delightful twilight talks for the Australian Broadcasting Co. It was then he asked me about the name Bracegirdle and I Sincerely Noël told him that the original family came from Cheshire and that With Alistair McGowan & Charlotte Page they'd come to Australia in the early colonial days by tea clipper. He said, I must remember that name! Cadogan Hall, London • 14 Nov. 7.30pm I did meet Noël Coward again, some years after the war when he invited me and my husband to the first night of Sail mpressionist Alistair McGowan and musical actress Away and all my life, I've had a great interest in his wonderful Charlotte Page, bring the songs poems and prose of Noël career and since my blindness, through the magic of RNIB, Coward to life in Sincerely Noël have read many of the diaries and books about him but Directed by Brendan O'Hea and ably accompanied by nowhwere have I read of those few days of Christmas 1940. George Dyer on the piano, the show opens with several of the If I have time, I hope to finish my autobiography but have impersonations for which McGowan is so well known, then the been delayed by writing a children's book about polar bears in script moves swiftly into the flow of the evening with the pair the Arctic. I am a proud Godmother to a polar bear! splitting lines of dialogue and songs between them as well as I am rather disabled as well as being practically blind so I each working solo. live a lot in my mind's eye. Together they whirl through these insights into the lives of I feel that the name of Noël Coward, despite wars and both everyday people and the upper classes with many tales of climate change/disasters, will live on... as does Shakespeare! the endless capacity of love to confuse, wound, amuse and capture hearts and minds alike. Best Wishes, Eve Bracegirdle With new musical arrangements by Warren Wills, the pair present songs including ‘Mad About The Boy’, ‘Never Again’ and ‘Alice Is At It Again’ as well as LOOK FAMILIAR? dramatised poems Alistair McGowan and Charlotte Page such as Well the painting below ought to . . .! Honeymoon 1905 in which two It is the same scene as our cover photograph only this is a newly-weds head painting by Noël of this same unique curved wall that to Ilfracombe in surrounds the duck pond at Goldenhurst where Noël and Kay fear of their Thompson are sitting being spied upon by both the camera marriage night and and Noël’s black poodle who was probably ‘Matelot’ Social Grace in On what Noël called “ The blackest and beastliest day of which Coward the year ” when the notices for Pacific 1860 were uniformly encountered a dreadful was the day when ‘Matelot’, which Graham Payn hilariously over- had bought for Noël, died. enthusiastic fan. Both Noël and Graham were “ horribly upset ”. Tickets are £20 but members can ask for a discount!

- 26 - This news item caused quite a stir when it hit the media. I was called up by local radio to guess what the Coward play was whose performance record had been beaten - at first I thought Cavalcade - silly me - Blithe Spirit of course - the most popular play Coward ever wrote. This cutting comes from the Antique Trade Gazette (hence the reference to the ATG offices at 115, Shaftesbury Avenue!) Ed.

THE COMPLETE VERSE The Complete Verse of Noël Coward brings together the three volumes of verse produced during his lifetime together with previously unpublished material for the very first time. This definitive collection of Coward's verse writings is irresistible. “Throughout most of the years of my life, since approximately 1908, I have derived a considerable amount of private pleasure from writing verse ... It is an inherent instinct in the English character. ” Beginning with his youthful verse experiments, The Complete Verse arranges in themed chapters Coward's prolific public and personal verse writings. Chapters bring together his verse on a wide variety of subjects including war, the theatre, love, friends, travel, and God and the infinite. It features the satirical 'cod-pieces' - Chelsea Buns and Spangled Unicorn - and the verse collected in the 1967 volume Not Yet the Dodo . But alongside these are the verses sent to friends and family over many years, in letters, memos and cables, which paint a vivid portrait of his more private life and are published here for the first time. With a linking commentary by editor Barry Day and sprinkled with illustrations throughout, The Complete Verse offers to Coward readers further enjoyment and appreciation of his wit, insatiable interest in people and skilful rendering of his public and private lives.

Barry Day has written extensively on Noël Coward. His most recent works are the acclaimed, The Letters of Noël Coward and In His Own Words . He was awarded an OBE for services to British Culture in the US.

- 27 - STAR QUALITY - The World of Noël Coward March 11, 2012 through August 12, 2012 in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. It is presented by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the Noël Coward Foundation and in collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Museum of Performance & Design, San Francisco. This will be the largest exhibition ever of Noël Coward, his life and work - a ‘must see’ for 2012! See a promo. on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLsnie7N_jA

Home Chat is a magazine produced by The Noël Coward Society , funded through the generosity of The Noël Coward Foundation.

Noël Coward Ltd. Chairman: Robert Gardiner Directors: Denys Robinson, Stephen Greenman and John Knowles, Company Secretary: Graham Martin.

The Noël Coward Society: President: HRH The Duke of Kent Vice Presidents: Maria Aitken, Barry Day OBE, Stephen Fry, Tammy Grimes, Penelope Keith CBE

Organising Committee: General Manager: John H. Knowles, Finance and Resources: Stephen Greenman, Events Organiser: Denys Robinson, Membership : Stephen Duckham, Media: Michael Wheatley-ward, North American Director : Ken Starrett, US West Coast Liaison : Kathy Williams, NCS in Australia : Kerry Hailstone, NCS in France : Hélène Catsiapis

Home Chat: Editor: John H. Knowles, US NCS news: Ken Starrett, Publication: Stephen Greenman Assistant Editors and Proofing: Kathy Williams and Ken Starrett, Music correspondent: Dominic Vlasto. Details of productions and events are as received, with our thanks, from: Samuel French (Play Publishers and Author’s Representatives), Ken Starrett (US), Alan Brodie Representation (Professional Productions), NCS members and theatre companies. NCS website: www.noëlcoward.net Unless otherwise stated all images and text are copyright to NC Aventales AG

Key Addresses: General Manager: John Knowles, 29 Waldemar Avenue, Hellesdon, Norwich, NR6 6TB, UK [email protected] +44 (0) 1603 486 188 Finance & Resources: Stephen Greenman, 64 Morant Street, London, E14 8EL [email protected] Events Organiser: Denys Robinson, 4 Parkside, Vanbrugh Fields, London, SE30 7QQ + 44 (0) 2082 658 879 email: [email protected] Membership Secretary: Stephen Duckham, 47 Compass Court, Norfolk Street, Coventry,West Midlands, CV1 3LJ [email protected] +44 (0) 2476 229 502 Press and Media Manager: Michael Wheatley-Ward, Chandos House, 14 Vale Square, Ramsgate, Kent CT11 9DF [email protected] North American Director : Ken Starrett, 49 West 68th Street, Apt 1 R New York, New York, 10023, USA [email protected] US West Coast Liaison : Kathy Williams, 141 Stonegate Road, Portola Valley, California 94028-7648 USA kathywilliams@noëlcoward.net NCS in Australia : Kerry Hailstone, 10A Westall Street, Hyde Park, South Australia, 5061 Australia [email protected] NCS in France : Hélène Catsiapis, 115, Boulevard de Port-Royal F-75014 Paris, France [email protected]

MEMBERSHIP REMINDER

our membership may be overdue from July reminders and the January renewal date will be with us soon. We welcome your continued support for the Society and its work in enriching the World of Coward. Help us in the drive to provide events of value and worth at an affordable price and disseminate archive and contemporary pieces that hopefully educate and entertain. If you have received a renewal invitation please respond as soon as you are able. If your membership is not renewed then you will unfortunately only receive one more copy of Home Chat before your membership ceases. Our thanks to those members who have written to us about how they became interested in Noël Coward, why not join then and put pen to paper and drop us a line. . .

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