NOËL COWARD’S
THIS WAS A MAN
In a world of adultery and vanity can a lazy idealist be forced to confront what he really feels? We lay bare our intimate private affairs and thoughts almost instantly to comparative strangers. Have we lost sight of our real emotions? Can we even remember who we want to be?
Edward Churt is living the London dream, a style setting emerging artist, a glamorous apartment, and beautiful wife with a vivid personality; he’s invited to every party and premiere in town. Yet he feels he’s become a shallow nonentity, a lazy idealist unsure how to behave. When his wife, Carol, embarks on a series of very public affairs, Edward greets her behaviour with his normal indifference. When his best friend, Evelyn, returns from the army, he’s determined to teach Carol a lesson and show them both what it really means to be a man.
NINETY YEAR WAIT FOR ITS WEST END DEBUT
Venture Wolf are proud to present the first ever West End production of Coward’s controversial masterpiece. Banned by the Lord Chamberlain in 1926, it was not performed in the UK professionally for over eighty years. The play’s exploration of love, marriage and the shallowness of modern society feels as poignant and relevant as ever. THIS WAS A MAN is Noël Coward at his sharpest, provocative best.
Not only one of the finest writers of comedy in the English language, Coward’s play is also a biting examination of morality, relationships and love. Though today the actions of his characters may seem less controversial, his intense and provocative examination of emotional repression and the contradictory needs to conform and feel free, remain as challenging and relevant as the day they were written. In a world of social media and blurred moral identity, the play’s core questions of what does it mean to be a man, and does the image we project to those around us actually reflect who we really are, have never felt more poignant.
At only £15 a ticket the production hopes to introduce Coward to a new generation of theatregoers and will be running an outreach programme alongside the production.
The production runs for three weeks in May 2017 at The Leicester Square Theatre. 11th to 28th May, Thursdays to Saturday 7pm, Saturdays and Sundays 2pm. Cast includes Paul Vitty, Daisy Porter, Thomas Pike, Bibi Lucile, Teddy Corbett, AW King, James Chadburn.
