Play of the Week: The Vortex, Rose Theatre, Kingston
Stephen Unwin delivers an incisive and acidly entertaining revival of the play that catapulted Noel Coward to notoriety in 1924.
David Dawson pulls you with terrific immediacy into the confusion of the hero, who returns home from Paris to find his mother as addicted to adulation from young men as he is hooked on cocaine.
The designs establish an atmosphere of jagged dislocation for this Jazz Age drama, while the excellent cast convey the comic strain of bourgeois between-the-wars fast living as they bitchily coruscate on thin ice.
In Unwin's hands, Coward's taboo-breaker can still pack a punch. Warmly recommended.
(08444 821 556; rosetheatrekingston.org) to 2 Mar
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies