Present Laughter Review

The other week I went to see the play 'Present Laughter' so i thought to write about it on my blog, even though no one reads these things, I thought i could re refer to it in the future. I also saw it a second time last monday, because i wanted to see it again and it was only shown for a few dates.

During the summer, I found myself in a research pit of Rimbaud and Flappers and the Naughty Nineties and Noel Coward......
I then found out that one of Coward's plays 'Present Laughter' was going to be showing in the cinema so I made note of it. ALSO Andrew Scott was in it, so even more of a reason to go.

The play is funny and flamboyant, while at the same time quite sad and has a tone of loneliness. The melancholic themes are hinted at in the first act and build up until the ending, which silences the audiences laughter with some, quite brutal, real shit.
There was a lot about acting and performing which i liked.
The costumes were to die for, and the it was all based in the same room. The set didnt change much, except for the lighting to show the time of day.
There were a few on running jokes like the one about 'forgetting your latch key' which becomes an inside joke with the audience and also a phrase to refer to something else like a code word.
As well as this there was 'Sorry, ive got the wrong number' and an going thing of throwing people into the spare room.
The layout of the play was strong, and i liked the parallel between the beginning of the two acts.
The scene towards the end of the first act was very seductive and included a lot of tension and there was a choatic bisexual energy through out the whole piece, so what's not to love.
During the second viewing, I also realised how the characters were quite queer and this wasn't treat as an unusual thing, despite it being set in the 1920s.