Present Laughter review – gender-switched Coward comedy dazzles in 70s New York

Theatre Royal Bath
Antihero actor Garry becomes a magnificent new kind of beast as Gerri, played with blistering hilarity by Tracy-Ann Oberman

The reputation of Noël Coward’s plays has involved escaping restrictions: his recorded clipped, waspish tone in key roles and a perception that, at a time when gay men’s careers and lives were at risk, the dramatist could not be socially and emotionally truthful.

Seven years ago, in an Old Vic revival of Coward’s 1942 off-stage comedy Present Laughter, Andrew Scott – as actor Garry Essendine, a gorgon of priapic self-importance – memorably banished the parodic playing style and probed forbidden subtext. Changing Joanna, one of Garry’s love interests, into Joe made characters bisexual or in sham marriages.