There’s a tableau in this production of The Vortex where the characters, in gorgeous party clothes, pose like an Annie Leibovitz cover for Vanity Fair. And none of Noël Coward’s characters is as vain as Florence Lancaster.
From the moment Lia Williams’s magnetic protagonist appears with her young lover Tom – wearing matching aviator outfits – her self-regard is 100 proof. She takes phone calls from people she pretends to like and callously flirts with her friend Helen, who is clearly yearning for her. When her son Nicky returns from a year abroad and announces that he’s engaged, she jealously asks: “Do you think she’ll like me?”
