Coward Plays 6 Semi-Monde Point Valaine South Sea Bubble Nude With Violin [Paperback]

Philip Hoare, in his biography of Coward describedSemi-Mondeas his most daring play to date. In a chic Parisian hotel, a series of sexual
pairings take place through rendezvous, arguments, infidelities and
reconciliations: sexual deviance is undisguised...set in the bisexual
1920s, the play could easily be populated by characters of Coward's
society .

Point Valaineis the
drama of a lurid episode of lust in the semi-tropics.. unmistakably the
work of a master of the stage (New York Times);South Sea Bubblewhich
concerns the Governor's lady in the Isle of Samolo who plays with
native fire, nearly gets her wings singed, bashes her native admirer
with a bottle and at one of those Coward next-morning-at breakfast
scenes slips her way out of the scrape with feline grace. (Manchester
Guardian) whilstNude With Violinis a witty comedy about art fraud.

No??l Coward was born in 1899 in Teddington, Middlesex. He made his name as a playwright withThe Vortex(1924), in which he also appeared. His numerous other successful plays includedFallen Angels(1925),Hay Fever(1925),Private Lives(1933),Design for Living(1933) andBlithe Spirit(1941). During the war he wrote screenplays such asBrief Encounter(1944) andIn Which We Serve(1942). In the fifties he began a new career as a cabaret entertainer. He published volumes of verse and a novel (Pomp and Circumstance, 1960), two volumes of autobiography and four volumes of short stories:To Step Aside(1939),Star Quality(1951),Pretty Polly Barlow(1964) andBon Voyage(1967). He was knighted in 1970 and died three years later in Jamaica.Semi-Monde; Point Valaine; South Sea Bubble; Nude With Violin