Design for Living by Noël Coward

The plot of Design for Living can be summed up in Leo’s line:
“The actual facts are so simple. I love you. You love me. You love Otto. I love Otto.Otto loves you. Otto loves me. There now! Start to unravel from there.”
Coward’s sparkling, irreverent and radical drama was written in 1932. Banned in the UK for its daring depiction of a ménage a trois it was produced on Broadway to immense acclaim. Written for the glamorous Broadway partnership of the Lunts (Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt) with Coward himself playing Leo, it caused a sensation.
Less often produced than the better known Private Lives or Hay Fever, the play proclaims Coward’s playful and daring genius while the themes it touches on (personal freedom, sexual identity, the costs of a hedonistic lifestyle outside of societies norms) remain as relevant now in the age of internet relationships as ever.
Witty and erudite, Coward’s dialogue drips with humour and irony but as ever contains huge darker truths about the human condition.

This amateur production of “Design for Living” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk

Tickets adults £12, concessions 10