The Information on Noel Coward's `Nude with Violin'

What Is It?

Revival of Noel Coward's satire on modern art, last performed in Britain more than 40 years ago, which was slated when it opened in 1956, several months after John Osborne's Look Back in Anger had rocked the theatre world.

Who's In It?

Derek Griffiths (right) is delightful as the silky-tongued Sebastien, with strong comic support from Marcia Warren as the hoaxer's widow, Tamzin Malleson as his forthright daughter, and Nick Caldecott as a gullible young journalist.

What They Say About It

"Though often enjoyable, ennui, or, as Gay Soper's hilariously bilingual chorus-girl might have it, enn-oo- ee, eventually sets in," Jeffrey Wainwright, The Independent.

"In Marianne Elliott's sprightly production, with a gleamingly chic chrome- and-glass design by Lez Brotherston, the piece emerges as a real find... undoubtedly the most enterprising revival to date in the Coward centenary celebrations," Charles Spencer, The Daily Telegraph.

"A lamentably toothless satire: one in which Coward never rises above the level of a suburban matron who, surveying a Picasso, argues that `my eight-year-old daughter could paint as well as that'," Michael Billington, The Guardian.

Where You Can See It

Nude with Violin is at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (0161-833 9833) until 21 Aug