“Sarcastic, striking and silly”
The Marquise by Noël Coward has been brought back to treat a new audience. The director Philip Wilson has lovingly crafted a tribute to the style of this piece. The set having be well crafted to display the art deco style of the 1920s and music trickling through the speakers of the decade brings the audience easily into the era. The costumes too are well suited to the time as well as doing an excellent job of representing their characters moods through colour choices.
For any not familiar with Coward’s work, expect very glib humour throughout. The fast-paced dialogue with subtle looks and poignancy on certain words was delivered with excellent timing. The entire cast kept the pace up well. Juliet Aubrey’s portrayal of Eloise gave wonderfully chaotic performance, exuding a cat-like nature and sounding similar to Eartha Kitt in her delivery. Simon Shepherd and Tristan Gemmill bounced well off each other with their back and forth challenging of the other’s bravado. Their fight choreography by Haruka Kuroda and Martin Carroll was excellently put together. Their characters and movements delivered some absurdist comedy from their ‘en garde’ positions, stretches and the physical exhaustion of two old men fighting kept the audience laughing. Some slips in the choreography blunted the frantic nature of the section but didn’t lose engagement. The physical comedy of the piece had a wonderfully bizarre piece from Holly Smith who plays Alice, manage to illicit raucous laughter with a very simple section of going up and down a set of stairs.
Eva O’Hara gave a wonderfully sweet and naive portrayal of Adrienne that gave her performance with Barnaby Tobias an adorable and blunt comedy timing to their lines. Barnaby’s performance was entertaining if a little short on stage, as his character disappears from the plot. This is perhaps why The Marquise isn’t reprised as much as Coward’s other plays as several characters are either not introduced or disappear without resolution. But the show is truly a laugh a minute piece with excellently quippy lines and plot that quickly swirls into comedic chaos and calamity.
Overall, the show is very well put together, though the pace can be maddeningly quick it was never rushed. As with any good piece, it never hurts to end on a song, which brings the audience back down to earth calmly after such a dizzying piece. The show is currently on at the Oxford Playhouse until the 13th of June with more performances set for Bath and Guildford, tickets are available here. Opening night was packed, so if there are any tickets remaining, it’s best to book now.