Coward expert Rosina Reynolds is directing Cygnet artistic director Sean Murray in the World War II era comedy about a vain theater actor having a midlife crisis
Fittingly, when Noel Coward’s farce “Present Laughter” premiered in 1942, Coward himself played the starring role of Garry Essendine, the London theater actor comically besieged on multiple fronts.“Coward was quite happy to say that this was the closest he’d ever come to writing about himself,” said Rosina Reynolds, who is directing Cygnet Theatre’s production of “Present Laughter.” “He wrote it to provide himself with a bravura part. It was quite calculated.
“Present Laughter” was written in 1939 in only six days, though World War II suspended rehearsals and delayed for three years the premiere in Blackpool, England. Its arrival was intended “to get the British population uplifted,” Reynolds said. Given Coward’s singular characters, drawing-room complications and rich, rhythmic language, this was pretty much guaranteed.
Like much of Coward’s work “Present Laughter” demonstrates the “wit, skill and dexterity with which he applies language,” said Reynolds. “As we become more involved with texts and emails and reduce our communication to emojis, it’s a celebration of language.
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