Noël Coward’s drama, “The Vortex,” which opened at the Malibu Playhouse last Friday evening, differs markedly from his signature lighter works, “Private Lives” and “Blithe Spirit.” He said of himself that he had “a talent to amuse,” but this play shows his darker, deeper side. While his trademark barbed wit is evident, it is intertwined with existential issues: the dread of aging, drug abuse, adultery, nymphomania, homosexuality and Oedipal tension.
In 1924, when the play premiered in London, although playgoers were unaccustomed to such themes, it was a succès de scandale of the Jazz Age. The 90 years that have elapsed have not dulled its impact and the Playhouse’s production does it full justice. Although the setting has been moved from the mid-1920s to 1965, the demographic remains customary Coward — British high society. As was often the case, he wrote the male lead role of Nicky Lancaster for himself.
Nicky is the young, effete son of Florence Lancaster, a famous actress unhappily aging and desperately resisting the advances of time. Nicky’s struggle to find in Florence the mother figure she has denied him and her inability to satisfy him is the focus of the play.
The play begins in traditional Noël Coward fashion, replete with lively droll banter, cocktails, cigarettes and dancing to popular tunes. We meet Florence’s’ two friends, Helen (Victoria Hoffman), witty, warm-hearted and brutally honest, and Pawnie (Cameron Mitchell, Jr.), described by Coward as “an elderly maiden gentleman.” Their verbal jousting is a delightful contest of waspishness. Florence’s paramour, Tom (Daniel Jimenez), is portrayed with apt immaturity.
Nicky’s fiancée, Bunty (Skye LaFontaine), has a lovely exterior that barely masks her callousness. Florence’s cuckolded husband, David (Will Carney), moves about aimlessly and cluelessly.
Nicky returns from a sojourn in Paris with his newly acquired fiancée — and a drug habit — trying to connect with Florence. In a poignant scene, they dance to the Gershwin standard, “Someone to Watch Over Me,” while singing along. But Florence has been waging her battle to hold back the clock through serial adultery with young lovers, and this revolts Nicky. Other complications occur and he is brought to the brink of hysteria and cries out, “We swirl about in a vortex of beastliness.” His pent-up passion finally bursts in Florence’s bedroom in a scene eerily reminiscent of the Hamlet/Gertrude confrontation. He shouts, “You’ve given me nothing all my life … You never love anyone. You only want them loving you.” She counters with, “I’m still young inside. I’m still beautiful. Why shouldn’t I live my life as I choose?” The curtain falls with Nicky cradled in his mother’s arms, weeping.
Shannon Holt gives a bravura performance as Florence. She reaches a level of histrionics that appropriately captures the terror of the aging actress and her neediness for adulation. It is a juicy role and Holt squeezes all there is out of it. Nicky, in the Noël Coward role, is superbly acted by Craig Robert Young. He depicts vividly the young man’s confused and unrequited longing for a maternal bond.
The play is ably directed by Gene Franklin Smith, the Playhouse’s artistic director. While the time of the play has been changed, the locale is still England, thus requiring the actors (other than Young, who is British) to affect accents. They do this credibly, although a slower pacing of the sequences of rapid repartee might improve cognition for the American ear. Staging a play on the Playhouse’s curtain-less stage was a challenge when the action moves from a London living room, to a country house and then to Florence’s bedroom. This feat is carried off faultlessly with all three sets on stage for which Erin Walley and Derrick McDaniel — the scenic and lighting designers — deserve plaudits.
“The Vortex” runs until Sunday, May 18, on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets may be purchased through the box office at www.malibuplayhouse.org or by calling 323-960-7711. The Malibu Playhouse is at 29243 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA, 90265.
