Theatre review: Present Laughter

While I appreciate a lot of the witty lines I've never been quite sure why Noël Coward's popularity has never majorly faltered - there's good stuff there but never enough to convince me he deserves quite the standing he continues to have. It's something that nags at the background of even the most successful revivals like this one - fortunately for Matthew Warchus, his production of Present Laughter has enough aces up its sleeve to keep those niggles very firmly in the background. The most obvious of these is Andrew Scott, who after years of being a firm favourite among regular theatregoers in the know got an overnight worldwide following after Sherlock, but who in recent months seems to have stepped up to another new level thanks to Fleabag. It's apt enough, then, that he's playing Garry Essendine - Coward's fairly transparent author-substitute may be famous predominantly for his stage work, but he also commands a kind of obsessive fandom.

It's a fandom he takes advantage of, as is evident when the play opens and Daphne (Kitty Archer,) who only met him the night before but feels like she's loved him for years through his stage roles, is still in his flat, having "forgotten her latchkey" the night before and stayed the night.

When he finally wakes up Garry is quick to break it gently to her that this was a one-night stand and not the epic love she's convinced herself it is, but she's no sooner gone than his magnetic personality has brought more complicated love/hate relationships into the flat. Present Laughter doesn't so much have a plot as an excuse to fill the stage with large personalities: Garry's support system includes his on-again off-again wife Liz (Indira Varma on caustic form) and his main foil, a reliably funny Sophie Thompson as long-suffering but no-nonsense secretary Monica. And Warchus makes this a mini-Pride reunion with 2018 Best Nipples Award Winner Joshua Hill as laddish valet Fred.

Garry needs this many people and more tidying up after him as one of his producers, Helen (Suzie Toase) recently got married; but his other producer Morris (Abdul Salis) is in love with her new husband, and very likely having an affair with him. When Garry tries to get to the bottom of the problem he only complicates it, as he too ends up sleeping with the promiscuous Joe (Enzo Cilenti.) This is of course a deviation from Coward's actual script (the married couple's genders have been swapped,) and the other major ace in Warchus' production, turning the play's subtext about illicit relationships into text. In fact, in what could end up being a 2019 theatrical meme at this rate, as well as outright making Garry and Joe bisexual, the implication is also very much there about a few other characters as well.

In many ways, Present Laughter is a midlife crisis play, and while most of Garry's rants and panics about ageing and losing his hair and looks are played for laughs, Scott is a good enough actor to give some genuine pathos to his crisis, making him sympathetic despite his cavalier attitude to other people. In fact it's hard to imagine the part being played better, Scott's trademark tendency to act with his fingers coming in useful as Garry, while baulking at the very suggestion he would ever overact, invariably goes into an overdramatic panic at every setback. There's a little bit of the tragic hero in Garry, but as the five entrances and exits on Rob Howell's gorgeous art-deco set suggest comedy is the main order of business, and sure enough we're firmly in farce territory by the second act.

The Old Vic was packed this afternoon with the kind of electric crowd you can tell is there for one person, so it's a joy to see the rest of the cast rise up to the challenge of making their mark, and the audience really embracing them. Thompson was an early comic favourite with the crowd, and later Luke Thallon stands out as possibly the most bizarre of Garry's admirers, an aspiring playwright who downright gets off on Garry's ruthless critique of his writing. This is all-round a laugh-out-loud, joyful couple of hours: Despite the hints of darkness and depth, I still come away from it feeling that the play doesn't actually have much of substance to say, but while it lasts Scott anchors a show to put a smile on your face and keep it there.

Present Laughter by Noël Coward is booking until the 10th of August at the Old Vic.

Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.