Present Laughter, Noel Coward
Present Laughter, Noel Coward
List: $6.95 | Sale: $4.87
Club: $3.47

Present Laughter

Author: Noel Coward

Narrator: Ian Ogilvy, Full Cast

Unabridged: 1 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/01/1996


Synopsis

A gallery of friends, lovers, relatives and theatre acolytes sparkle around stage star Garry Essendine like bubbles in fine champagne. While Garry struggles to plan his upcoming trip to Africa, his elegant London flat is invaded by a love struck ingénue, an adulterous producer and a married seductress–not to mention Garry’s estranged wife Liz and the memorable Roland Maule, an aspiring playwright who is quite, quite mad.

"Present Laughter is a very light comedy and was written with the sensible object of providing me with a bravura part.”
Noël Coward

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Gregory Cooke, Arthur Hanket, Jon Matthews, Ian Oglivy, Siri O'Neal, Christina Pickles, Carolyn Seymour and Yeardley Smith.

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

Daphne and Joanna, respectively, lust after matinee idol Garry Essendine. They must have him! Fact: Garry is really a prima donna/diva. There hasn't been such a stage actor since Noel Coward, but what the hell. Give Noely, who wrote the role for himself, his cockeyed fawntasies. The ladies arrive......more

Goodreads review by Marcus

A witty farce. Watched the 1981 performance from BBC TV online, with an excellent Garry played by Donald Sinden. The play has been regularly performed with actors such as Peter O’Toole and Albert Finney in the role.......more

Goodreads review by Rachel

I guess if I have to read an early 20th farce by a dead white guy, Noel Coward is my choice.......more