Coward Plays: 1

Introduction

This first volume in the Coward Collection contains four plays written within a two year period when Coward and the century were still in their 20s. The volume is introduced by Sheridan Morley, Coward's first biographer.

Hay Fever

Hay Fever, a comedy of bad manners, concerns a weekend with friends of the Bliss family, who have all been invited independently for a weekend at their country house near Maidenhead.

The Vortex

The Vortex was a controversial drama in its time, introducing drug-addiction onto the stage at a time when alcoholism was barely mentioned.

Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels, which is written for two star actresses, was described as "degenerate", "vile", "obscene", "shocking" - the second half of the play is entirely taken up with an alcoholic duologue between the two women.

Easy Virtue

Easy Virtue is an elegant, laconic tribute to a lost world of drawing-room dramas, no other writer went more directly to the jugular of that moralistic, tight-lipped but fundamentally hypocritical 20s society.

"He is simply a phenomenon, and one that is unlikely to occur ever again in theatre history" Terence Rattigan