This 1965 trilogy of late works by Noël Coward has all his signature marks: wealthy couples, glamorous mistresses, secrets, intrigue and wit. Each play takes place in the same elegant Swiss hotel suite, complete with a drinks trolley which becomes key to unleashing the domestic fracas.
They are distinct for their well-wrought, intimate and sometimes dark treatment of their subject matter. Directed by Tom Littler, each features a compromised marriage, a tussle between self-fulfilment and convention, and a midlife malaise which carries the sense of a dramatist staring into the abyss of later life – the abyss staring right back at him, and us.
