Design for Living

Synopsis

Design for Living follows the fortunes of Gilda, Otto and Leo, a trio of decadent 30-something artists who travel from Paris to London to New York as their fame increases. The complex and revolving relationships between the three conclude themselves in a highly provocative manner, flying in the face of convention and their public profile. The notion of a ménage a trois, shocking in 1932 when the play was written is still provocative today and Coward's play has much to tell us about celebrity status, sexual mores and the nature of fidelity.

Our Review:

21 July 2003

Noel Coward like the poor, is always with us, beloved of regional repertory and amateur dramatic companies up and down the land. Recently he's also enjoyed something of a major revival with Howard Davies' terrific production of Private Lives in the West End two years ago and this year's The Vortex at the Donmar Warehouse.

It has, however, taken Sir Peter Hall some years to get around to this dramatist - this production is his 'first Noel'. Coward may once have provoked or even shocked, but few things date faster than notoriety, and what remains now is, as Coward himself had it, "a talent to amuse". Design for Living is one of five plays in repertory at Bath Theatre Royal, a disparate collection united by the exploration of sexuality and sexual mores.

Where Private Lives had two people who couldn't live with - but equally couldn't live without - one another Design for ...