Coward Plays: 6

Synopsis

Philip Hoare, in his biography of Coward described Semi-Monde as his "most daring play to date.

In a chic Parisian hotel, a series of sexual

pairings take place through rendezvous, arguments, infidelities and

reconciliations: sexual deviance is undisguised...set in the bisexual

1920s, the play could easily be populated by characters of Coward's

society".

Point Valaine is "the

drama of a lurid episode of lust in the semi-tropics.. unmistakably the

work of a master of the stage" (New York Times); South Sea Bubble which

concerns "the Governor's lady in the Isle of Samolo who plays with

native fire, nearly gets her wings singed, bashes her native admirer

with a bottle and at one of those Coward next-morning-at breakfast

scenes slips her way out of the scrape with feline grace."

(Manchester

Guardian) whilst Nude With Violin is a witty comedy about art fraud.