As a shining example for our contemporary playwrights, Noel Coward wrote dozens of strong parts for mature actresses, none more so than for this, his farewell to the theatre in 1966, set in the private suite of a luxurious hotel in Switzerland.
Coward’s own role was the retired and ailing author Sir Hugo, recovering from a nervous illness. Played by Peter Egan on a sustained note of anger, he makes the most of the occasional flashes of wit in the first act. But all this is leading up to his sense of outrage at the bigotry and draconian laws that have made homosexuality a criminal offence in his own country, courageously presaging Nicholas de Jongh’s drama, Plague over England, by more than four decades.
The best scenes and wittiest lines go to his two supporting actresses, one as his former mistress Carlotta with a devastating secret in her handbag, the other his German wife Hilde, still serving as an attentive secretary and carer.
Belinda Lang, a slim, dazzling figure as the mistress with a mission, is stunningly dressed by designer Matthew Wright, delivering her lines with a deliciously impudent drawl of teasing inference.
The role of the wife is initially a slow burner for Kerry Peers in what seems a character part designed to provide plot delineating detail for the more glamorous pair to play against. But as here beautifully portrayed by this superb actress, she reveals it as the wise, quietly effective key figure, winning a spontaneous round of applause from a delighted Windsor audience.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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