Design For Living @ The Old Vic Theatre
I was very pleased when I heard The Old Vic was producing a revival of Noel Cowards 1933 play Design For Living. Quite the Coward fanatic, Design For Living has always been one of my favorite works. Of course, you always worry about whether a new production will get the right tone; will the actors truly get to grips with, not only the sheer amount of words per sentence, but the very specific rhythm of Cowards dialogue? Will the director manage to appease Coward purists whilst still presenting a production suited for modern mainstream audiences? And will the astute observations on human morality be brought to the surface or sacrificed in a sort of half mocking, high farce as often seems to be the case with modern Coward productions (bizarrely, this particularly seems to happen when adapted for film)? Fortunately, this production, well directed by Anthony Page, scores pretty high on all counts.
The play essentially revolves around a sort of menage a trios between the three main characters Leo, Otto and Gilda (The relationship pretty well summed up in a line of dialogue by Leo ‘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.’) The play follows these characters and their partner swapping rebellion against social convention from bohemian Paris through to the high rise apartments of Manhatten all the while dishing out hilarious witticisms and acute observations on love, high minded moralists, lust and, of course, selfishness. It’s comments on love are fair and true, asking questions about how realsitic monogamy is in the face of human desire and whether the idea you can’t truly love more than one person simply stems from society’s conditioning? Questions that for a show put on the heavily censored stage of the 1930’s, make this play very ahead of its time. However, and this is sometimes overlooked, the play seems equally as critical of the reckless attitude of those who completely act on the whim of their self motivated desires. This production with it’s more subtle approach seems to allow these arguments to battle it out naturally rather than inflict its own reading of the play upon the audience. For every outburst which seems to see Coward embracing the relatively modern idea of free love, such as Otto’s impassioned speech when seducing Gilda in the second act ‘ But the whole point is, it’s none of their business. We’re not doing any harm to anyone else. The only people we could possibly mess up are ourselves and that’s our lookout… To deny it would be ridiculous, and to unravel it impossible, Therefore, the only thing left is to enjoy it thoroughly, every rich moment of it, every thrilling second…’, there’s another that seems to acknowledge a carless selfishness of which Coward is quite critical, this was displayed by Leo when breaking the news of his affair to Otto ‘ You don’t suppose we enjoy telling you, do you? If it wasn’t that we loved you deeply, both of us, we’d lie to you indefinitely, rather than inflict this horror on ourselves… we’re having just as bad a time as you are, probably worse!’. This is quite interesting, as it seems to reflect the dual personality Coward occasionally diplayed. On the one hand rather forward thinking and liberal, on the other very conservative, with a stong view point of society rooted in middle class values. If I had time, there is so much more to explore in this truly brilliant play satirizing all the petty, and eventually insignificant, hang ups we as a society create for ourselves. Coward earned his nickname of ‘The Master’ and this play proves him to be one of the great observers of human nature writing for Theatre in the twentieth century.
The performances were all on point. Lisa Dillon captures the essence of Gilda superbly, playing her as rather restless and also, somewhat concerned about whether she, as the only woman in this relationship, is on equal footing. Tom Burke, as Otto, plays the dependency on this three way relationship very well, really making it come through in a way a lot of actors forget when caught up in all the language. The real standout for me was Andrew Scott as Leo, his comic timing was incredible, a slight change in the tone of voice or the right physical gesture had him always ready to provoke laughter from the audience, this whilst always keeping a line that never betrayed the emotional realtionship his character shared with the others, So yeah, all in all Anthony Page has directed a remarkably succesful revival of a great play, a play which should be placed up there with the best of Coward (It remains my personal favorite). Definitely recommended.
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