Design For Living, Noel Coward
Design For Living, Noel Coward
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Design For Living

Author: Noel Coward

Narrator: Claire Forlani, Hamish Linklater, Full Cast

Unabridged: 1 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2005

Synopsis

Three terminally stylish friends, who share rivalrous affections, attempt to uncoil their twisted love triangle in this sexy and scandalous gem. Written in 1932, the play was deemed extremely daring, and even by today’s standards is considered controversial. In its frank and funny take on sex, love and commitment, Design for Living proves to be one of Coward’s greatest successes.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Michelle Arthur, Claire Forlani, Thomas Hildreth, Tim Morrison, Sarah Rafferty, Douglas Weston and Hamish Linklater.

About Noel Coward

Noel Coward was born in 1899 in Teddington, Middlesex. He made his name as a playwright with The Vortex (1924), in which he also appeared. His numerous other successful plays included Fallen Angels (1925), Hay Fever (1925), Private Lives (1933), Design for Living (1933), and Blithe Spirit (1941). During the war he wrote screenplays such as Brief Encounter (1944) and This Happy Breed (1942). In the fifties he started a new career as a cabaret entertainer. He published volumes of verse and a novel, Pomp and Circumstance (1960), two volumes of autobiography, and four volumes of short stories: To Step Aside (1939), Star Quality (1951), Pretty Polly Barlow (1964), and Bon Voyage (l967). Coward was knighted in 1970 and died three years later in Jamaica.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sketchbook on June 14, 2015

A famous title resulting not from the play but from the wonderful Lubitsch movie (sc Ben Hecht, who used 2 lines by Coward), it's a provocative work, though not particularly funny. At times, it's even nasty and worse, for Coward, boring. Still, writ for himself and the Lunts, and first performed in......more

Goodreads review by Ivonne on December 20, 2016

The actual facts are so simple. I love you. You love me. You love Otto. I love Otto. Otto loves you. Otto loves me. There now! Start to unravel from there. Noël Coward’s Design for Living opened on Broadway in 1933 because it was too risqué for London’s West End. Even today, you probably wouldn......more

Goodreads review by Kirsti on August 30, 2018

Not-at-all-bizarre love triangle. I guess this was pretty shocking when it premiered in 1932, though. I've always loved stories of privileged people being ridiculous. I listened to the L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording. Well written, well acted, slightly marred by the fact that Claire Forlani pr......more

Goodreads review by Juan on August 04, 2023

Pues absolutamente encantadora, por supuesto. Tiene los pecadillos de ese teatro burgués que luego tanto se exportó en España en los años 20-30, por lo que la peli de Lubitsch es mejor sin duda, aunque esta obra tiene a su favor todo lo inglés. Por ejemplo: «I wish I believed in God, the Daily Mail......more

Goodreads review by Kennedie on August 11, 2023

The Throuple. I would love to write a modern screenplay for this. Noel is so quick with his dialogue that I ended up re-reading entire scenes just to feel alive again.......more

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