After a sell-out run in Cork Arts Theatre, Ian McGuirk brings his production of Noel Coward’s Present Laughter to The Everyman, which features an all-Cork cast with direction by Mary Curtin.
Present Laughter is one of Noel Coward’s four great comedies of manners, along with Hay Fever, Private Lives and Blithe Spirit. It presents a masterly, exaggerated picture not only of the playwright himself, but of his whole household, his court, his admirers, his lifestyle and his era.
The plot depicts a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed light comedy actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in Africa. Amid a series of events bordering on farce, Garry has to deal with women who want to seduce him, placate both his long-suffering secretary and his wife, cope with a crazed young playwright and overcome his impending midlife crisis. The character is a caricature of the author’s real-life person, as Coward acknowledged.