Product Description

Blackmail, drug abuse, and romantic intrigue rise to the surface in Coward’s disturbing exploration of the Cocktail Party set in 1920s London. An unorthodox, frequently revived early piece from a giant of twentieth century British Theater.

Noel Coward was born in Middlesex, England in 1899 and came to fame as a playwright, lyricist, actor, cabaret performer, and one of the twentieth century’s greatest wits. He died in Jamaica in 1973.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1493460 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Review
All the anxiety of the early 1920s, post-war twitchiness glossed by martinis and mannered cigarettes, is caught in Noel Coward's The Vortex. His central characters are like specks of dirt approaching the plughole of a draining bath. The closer they get to the hole, the faster they spiral. Daily Mail One of the mysterious things about Noel Coward, and one of the sure indications that he is a great writer, is that he constantly takes you by surprise. Daily Telegraph The Vortex (1924) was the play that made his name and firmly established him as both a dramatist and an actor - he'd been at pains to ensure the play included "a whacking good part" for himself - and it was the roaring twenties equivalent of today's socalled in-yer-face theatre, the Shopping and F***ing of the jazz age. Daily Telegraph Of all Noel Coward's plays The Vortex is the only one whose shock appeal has survived more or less intact. Evening Standard Noel Coward's The Vortex is his darkest play: a remarkable combination of shallow and deep it's a drama that wipes the smile from its own face. Observer

Customer Reviews

Noel Coward's First Great Success
Noel Coward (1899-1973) is today best recalled for the acid-etched hilarity of such comedies as HAY FEVER, PRIVATE LIVES, BLITHE SPIRIT and DESIGN FOR LIVING--but his first great success as a playwright was 1923's THE VORTEX, a drama that drops the mask of 1920s gaiety to expose the empty lives of those who make the social world of the era go round. At the time, many condemned it as an exceptionally immoral play; read today, it seems old fashioned and a bit creaky, but even so it retains considerable power.

Florence Lancaster is beautiful, spirited, wealthy, and socially prominent. She is also middle-aged and fighting it every inch of the way, taking lovers half her age to shore up her sense of youth. But her flagrant adulteries are merely the beginning of the tale: when her son Nicky returns from Paris he not only brings the young woman he loves, he discovers his mother having an affair with one of the young woman's friends. Needless to say, sparks soon fly on several fronts.

What makes THE VORTEX continue to work on both page and stage is the cynical portrait it paints of the upper-class 1920s cocktail set, where the bright surface of social sprees conceal self-illusion, drug abuse, searing selfishness, and even a touch of implied incest. While this will never rank among the best of Coward's work, in its own way it is quite a memorable piece of theatre, and those interested in 1920s theatre or Noel Coward will find it a worthy read.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer
In memory of Cujo, 1992-2005
An Orange Cat and a Dear and Faithful Companion, Greatly Missed