Present Laughter by Noel Coward.
Directed by Karen Vickery. Lighting by Disa Swifte. Lighting assistant Rhiley Winnett. Sound. Patrick Dixon and Neville Pye. Stage Manager Disa Swifte. Costumes Fiona Leach and Jennie Norberry. Props Brenton Warren. Set Design Karen Vickery and Michael Sparks. Set realization. Michael Sparks. Social media marketing. Karina HudsonSet construction Matthew Overnell. ACT HUB. Spinifex Street Kingston. June 4 – 14 2025. Bookings: 6210 8748. Or enquiries@acthub.com.au
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Jarrad West as Garry Essendine (front) and Joe Dinn as Morris Dixon (behind) in Present Laughter |
“Garry Essendine is me” Noel Coward told a BBC interviewer when talking about his 1939 play Present Laughter currently playing at ACT HUB. Garry Essendine, played with magnificent histrionic flair by Jarrad West, is the lead character in Coward’s romantic comedy. Essendine is a famous, highly successful actor of romantic comedies. At forty he exudes charm that draws the besotted towards him like a magnet. He is incredibly vain, egotistical and every bit the actor. Coward knows the world of theatre intimately and in Present Laughter he takes enormous pleasure in delighting audiences with a witty display of self-mockery laced with the sharp tongue of satire and ridicule, lapsing into hilarious farce.
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| Callum Doherty is David. Jarrad West is Garry Essendine |
Written in 1939, the onset of war prevented the staging until 1942 when war-weary audiences were hungry for rollicking, side-splitting entertainment which in this ACT HUB production director Karen Vickery and her brilliantly chosen cast serve up in a banquet of farcical fun. The plot is paper thin, but that doesn’t matter. Coward is more intent on wickedly poking fun at his tribe’s stereotypes. Vickery does some gender swapping to give the play a contemporary touch and young actor Callum Doherty is given the opportunity to show what a shining talent he is. Coward’s Daphne Stillington whom Essendine seduces during a one night stand in the original version becomes David, a young man in desperate love with Essendine. Joanna’s lover Henry becomes Henrietta, the intense lesbian lover of Joanna, who is playing Morris, the producer, off against Henry while “losing” a latch key to spend the night with Essendine. It is a deliciously wicked and sensual performance by Karina Hudson as the scheming Siren. The gender swap matters not a jot in ACT HUB’s production and there is little doubt that Coward would approve of this risqué tampering with his characters.
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| Jenna Roberts as Miss Erikson in Present Laughter |
The joy in ACT HUB’s production of Present Laughter is not in the plot per se although there is an abundance of Coward’s sharp wit and ridiculous carry-on. Seduction, besottedness, frivoulous folly and moods and tantrums keep the action darting along as Essendine struggles with a mid-life crisis the burden of adulation and a plan to tour the far-flung outpost of Australia.
The sheer delight and source of hilarious amusement lies in Vickery’ superb casting. West’s Essendine is a tour de force example of ham acting, an over-the-top display of comic timing and theatrionics, He is almost constantly on stage , the centrifugal force of this riotous comedy. Coward’s collection of crazy and not so crazy characters comes to vivid life in the performances of a stellar supporting cast. Jenna Roberts’ house maid, an east European Miss Erikson portrays a freakish Transylvanian defiance and steals the scene. Leonidas Katsanis is the unruffled, efficient valet Fred. Callum Doherty in fairy wings and party dress is delicious absurdity at its most plaintive. Michael Cooper’s pretentious aspiring avant-garde playwright Roland Maule gives another manic scene-stealing performance. Joe Dinn’s Morris Dixon is a love-wrecked quivering fool and Amy Kowalczuk gives a finely credible performance as the severely serious lesbian lover of Joanna Lyppiatt. Coward is too clever a playwright to simply whip up a whirlwind of madness with no balance. Karina Hudson provides a more measured tempo of performance as the seductive siren. In contrast the most honest and intelligent women in Essendine’s life are his professional and efficient secretary Monica Reed, played with a calm and steadying control by Tracy Noble and his former wife Liz, who manages to keep matters on an even keel as a result of her honest and realistic love. They all succumb to Essendine’s charm, but not everyone is charmed equally. Vickery’s direction is a triumphant example of inspired casting and every actor on the stage is a delight to behold. It is not all madcap mayhem however and Vickery has chosen to capture the pathos behind the artifice as Essendine finally removes the mask to expose the vulnerability beneath. Whether Coward would have approved of the assault on his charm offensive at the end of the play is debatable but Vickery changes the original ending and leaves Essendine confronting his true self in a play where dissimulation is the name of the game.
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| Michael Cooper as Roland Maule, Jarrad West as Essendine and Callum Doherty as David in Present Laughter |
Present Laughter is a full length play that lasts perhaps too long at two and a half hours with an interval. Some editing in the final act would not have been unwise. Nonetheless, Vickery and her cast and creative team have staged a wonderful revival of Coward’s mirror up to his own nature and his wonderful world of theatre. It earns its place as the hottest and funniest ticket in town.
