Noël Coward Knihy

Hořká komedie Noëla Cowarda se odehrává o jednom červnovém víkendu v letním sídle manželů Blissových. Bývalá herečka Judith Blissová a její manžel, spisovatel David, tu tráví léto se svými dvěma dospělými dětmi - dcerou Sorel a synem Simonem. Každý z nich si nezávisle na sobě pozve na víkend hosta. Od okamžiku, kdy vyjde najevo, že jejich host nebude v domě tím jediným, hádky mezi sebestřednými členy rodiny převáží nad obyčejnou slušností, takže hosty přehlížejí, nebo si je jízlivě dobírají. Cowardovi se podařilo vytvořit atmosféru trapného dusna, které odlehčuje brilantním dialogem. Všichni Blissovi se chovají nevyzrále a nedospěle. S velkou intenzitou a rychlostí podléhají neexistujícím citům a ve svém uzavřeném světě vedle sebe žijí bez opravdového zájmu jeden o druhého. Za vším pozérstvím se však skrývá obyčejné a lidsky pochopitelné zoufalství z nenaplněnosti vlastního osudu.

"Its fusion of passion and mischief remains striking and there is something undeniably heady about its celebration of a kind of sexual liberation that looks a lot like flippancy" - Evening Standard From 1930s bohemian Paris to the dizzying heights of Manhattan society, a tempestuous love triangle unravels between a vivacious interior designer, Gilda, playwright Leo and artist Otto - three people unashamedly and passionately in love with each other. But can such a lavish love affair survive the real world? Exploring themes of bisexuality, celebrity, success and self-obsession, Design for Living is a stylish and scandalous comedy, that is often revered as Coward's most controversial and risqué work. This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Coward's death and features a new introduction by Oliver Soden.

In the twilight of his life, a cosmopolitan author navigates the complexities of love and commitment, torn between his long-standing wife of convenience and a passionate new relationship. The narrative explores themes of desire, regret, and the search for meaning, blending humor with poignant reflections on aging and relationships. As he grapples with his choices, the author’s journey reveals the bittersweet nature of life’s transitions and the emotional intricacies of human connection.

The third volume of Coward's plays contains some of his best work from the thirties.

The definitive account, in his own words, of one of the most popular figures in British theatre. The second and concluding volume of Noël Coward's legendary autobiography includes Future Indefinite and the unfinished Past Unconditional. With his trademark wit, Coward delivers anecdotes about his travels in South America, Hollywood encounters with an array of contemporary stars and directors, and his later theatrical successes, including the Broadway triumph of Design For Living. The showbiz glamour aside, we also encounter a middle-aged man coming to terms with a world in disarray; his confused feelings towards the war and his own part in it exposing a more serious and thoughtful side to a performer and raconteur more usually associated with frivolity. Future Indefinite sees Coward transformed from a 'brazen odious little prodigy' into one of the most exuberant characters in British theatrical history. "His writing is superb, his precise languid drawl put down on the page" Daily Express

Volume Four of Noel Coward's plays contains a selection of Coward's plays from the thirties and forties which includes Blithe Spirit, a comedy that centres around the spirit medium Madame Arcati. The play that mocks sudden death was produced at precisely the moment when bombs were bringing it to Britain: "I shall ever be grateful, for the almost psychic gift that enabled me to write Blithe Spirit in five days during one of the darkest years of the war." The play was for years the longest-running comedy in the history of British theatre.Present Laughter follows the life of Garry Essendine, a world-weary, middle-aged projection of the dilettante, debonair persona - self-obsessed and dressing-gowned who struts through the play like an educated peacock. It is a comedy about the 'theatricals' that Noel best knew and loved, and was originally a star vehicle for himself. It is the closest to an autobiographical play that Coward ever wrote.This Happy Breed is a saga of a lower middle-class family; and three shorter pieces fromTonight at 8.30- is a farce set in the South of France, and serves as an oblique tribute to Frederick Lonsdale; The Astonished Heart is about the decay of a psychiatrist's mind through personal sexual obsession. Red Peppers, which closes the volume, was a cynical tribute to the lost music halls of the First World War.

"An honest, even profound reflection on the price of fame, with some genuine sexual frisson and an undercurrent of pathos." - The Hollywood Reporter At the centre of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs - his line of harmless, infatuated debutantes is largely tolerated but playing closer to home is not. Just before he escapes on tour to Africa the full extent of his misdemeanours is discovered... and all hell breaks loose. Noël Coward's Present Laughter premiered in the early years of the Second World War just as such privileged lives were threatened with fundamental social change, and remains one of the playwright's most enduring hits. This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Coward's death and features a new introduction by Russell Jackson.

"I will ever be grateful for the almost psychic gift that enabled me to write 'Blithe Spirit' in five days during one of the darkest years of the war." -Noel Coward. Written in 1941, 'Blithe Spirit' remained the longest-running comedy in British Theatre for three decades. Plotted around the central role of one of Coward's best loved characters, a spirit medium Madame Arcati (originally performed by Margaret Rutherford) Coward's play is an escapist comedy about a man whose two previous wives return to haunt him.

Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne, divorced from one another five years previously, arrive coincidentally at the same French hotel. They are both honeymooning with their respective new spouses, but find that the old bond between them cannot be swept aside. schovat popis