This semi-autobiographical comedy follows a self-obsessed actor in the midst of a mid-life crisis who freely indulges his considerable appetite for wine, women and sleeping late.
At the center of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs. His line in harmless, infatuated debutantes is largely tolerated but playing closer to home is not. Just before he escapes on tour to Africa the full extent of his misdemeanors is discovered. And all hell breaks loose. Noël Coward's Present Laughter premiered in 1942 during WW2 just as such privileged lives were threatened with fundamental social change.
This semi-autobiographical comedy follows a self-obsessed actor in the midst of a mid-life crisis who freely indulges his considerable appetite for wine, women and sleeping late.
At the center of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs. His line in harmless, infatuated debutantes is largely tolerated but playing closer to home is not. Just before he escapes on tour to Africa the full extent of his misdemeanors is discovered. And all hell breaks loose. Noël Coward's Present Laughter premiered in 1942 during WW2 just as such privileged lives were threatened with fundamental social change.
read more
show less