Present Laughter

“What is love? ’tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What’s to come is still unsure:” (Twelfth Night)

Noël Coward’s title is as apt today as when Present Laughter was first staged in wartime London in 1942. A recent National Theatre revival was well received, perhaps because of a celebrity cast – ‘tho none familiar to me. I thought it might be worth watching but then found (on Youtube) a 1981 London production with a cast I did recognise: Donald Sinden, Dinah Sheridan, Julian Fellowes (yes, that Julian Fellowes) … I was tickled pink, something Bertie enjoys. Then I watched the trailer for the NT production and although it is quick-fire it is less mannered and that’s how Coward likes to deliver his lines. The leading man is much too young and much too frenetic. Donald Sinden pulls it off as only an old hand can with an excellent supporting cast. Even the enigmatic, cigarette stealing, maid, Miss Erikson, makes her mark as a  Scandinavian prototype for Mrs Doyle in Father Ted. Noël Coward wrote the lead for himself and only a fruity old queen can do the part justice. Of course YMMV – a new acronym for me – Your Mileage May Vary.

I think Rex Harrison might have been good and, funnily enough, Rex agrees.

At the age of 73, he’s thinking of the day when he will take the ”final curtain call,” says Rex Harrison. But before that happens, there are five more plays he’d like to appear in.

Mr. Harrison, in Boston for the revival of his hit of more than 20 years ago, ”My Fair Lady,” said that the plays he wanted to do, possibly for cable television, were Shaw’s ”Heartbreak House,” Strindberg’s ”Dance of Death,” Terence Rattigan’s ”The Browning Version,” Noel Coward’s ”Present Laughter” and Chekhov’s ”Uncle Vanya.” (The New York Times, 1981)

You probably know that Rex Harrison did not nurture his fan club. Leaving the stage door of a West End theatre he barged through the autograph hunters, pushing a lady aside. She slapped him with her programme. It’s unusual for the fan to hit the shit.