Hay fever ; The vortex ; Fallen angels ; Easy virtue
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Hay fever ; The vortex ; Fallen angels ; Easy virtue
（Methuen world classics, . Plays ; 1）
Methuen Drama, 1999
- : pbk
Available at 2 libraries
Note
introduction copyright c 1989, 1999 by Sheridan Morley
Chronology copyright c 1987, 1999 by Jacqui Russell
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This first volume in the Coward Collection contains four plays written within a two year period when Coward and the century were still in their 20s. The volume is introduced by Sheridan Morley, Coward's first biographer. Hay Fever, a comedy of bad manners, concerns a weekend with friends of the Bliss family, who have all been invited independently for a weekend at their country house near Maidenhead. The Vortex was a controversial drama in its time, introducing drug-addiction onto the stage at a time when alcoholism was barely mentioned. Fallen Angels, which is written for two star actresses was described as 'degenerate', 'vile', 'obscene', 'shocking' - the second half of the play is entirely taken up with an alcoholic duologue between the two women. Easy Virtue is an elegant, laconic tribute to a lost world of drawing-room dramas, no other writer went more directly to the jugular of that moralistic, tight-lipped but fundamentally hypocritical 20s society. "He is simply a phenomenon, and one that is unlikely to occur ever again in theatre history" Terence Rattigan
Table of Contents
- Hay Fever
- The Vortex
- Fallen Angels
- Easy Virtue
by "Nielsen BookData"