We have a very good theatre in Colchester, The Mercury. I have been to many events here, some dire, some brilliant. I remember well a simply magnificent rep performance of The Browning Version which, in my opinion, was even better than that of Sir Michael Redgrave in the film version; a performance in a now defunct studio theatre of Duet for One which reduced the audience to stunned silence and tears and have seen musicals and Shakespeare in this venue. It has had its ups and downs and different managers but over the last few years seems to have settled down to a steady stream of good productions. Last week I went to see Coward's last play for the stage, A Song at Twilight. Noel Coward played the role of Hugo Latymer himself and goodness me, wish I could have seen it.
Forgive this somewhat grainy photo - had to scan it in the end
Hugo is said to be based on the character of Somerset Maugham who, it is clear when reading Coward's diaries and letters, he disliked very much. It would appear mainly for the fact that he went to extraordinary lengths to hide his homosexuality. Maugham married, Syrie, and had a child and was terrified that his repressed sexuality would harm his reputation as a Great Writer. While we must bear in mind that Maugham lived at a time when homosexuality was a criminal offence, it does not excuse his cruelty to his wife, who he treated appallingly and then later, he tried to disown his child and adopt his young lover instead and leave his estate to him. Coward himself, as we all know, was homosexual but he made no secret of it and one feels it is the cowardice of Maugham that offended him so much. In this play Hugo Latymer is visited by an old mistress, Carlotta, who it appears has letters that he wrote to 'the love of his life' who was not her, but a man. Like Maugham, Latymer is terrified that this will get out and ruin his reputation and while Carlotta appears to have a high minded mission in mind, to get him to acknowledge his true self and show real feeling for once in his life, by the end of the evening we realise that she is not as altruistic as she appears and she is deeply hurt and bitter at the fact that he used her as a cover.
My sympathies were, on the whole, with Hugo Latymer. He was in anguish and he could not make Carlotto, who I found rather annoying, understand that despite the fact that this was post-Wolfenden and being homosexual was no longer a crime, the scandal and stigma would not yet go away and would not for years. Great prescience from Coward here as, for example, it is only in the lifetime of this government that MPs are not afraid to be openly gay. Before that, it was political suicide to be discovered. Carlotta seemed to lack all understanding of this, but then his wife returns and it is clear that yes, she too had known all along and she defends her husband.
This play falls very much into two halves: first act when setting the scene is Coward at his wittiest and best, throw away lines, little bits of business, sharp dialogue and pure enjoyment. But then come the second act and all change. We get to the nitty gritty, Carlotta reveals what she is really there for and the layers are peeled away one by one. The house was nearly full, good turnout for a Monday, and I have a sneaky feeling that most of the audience did not know what this play was about, but it was a 'Coward' and that was what they had come for. I sensed a slight uneasiness at times and, in act one when Hugo made a comment about a handsome waiter, a slight shift was felt in the watchers. However, by the end of the play when I glanced round, everyone was totally engrossed and the proverbial pin could have been heard drop.
I am a huge admirer of Noel Coward, always have been, and I have his diaries, autobiography and letters on my shelves. I looked up what he had to say about A Song at Twilight: "Here my darlings is my new play. I think and hope you will like it. I think it's quite a rouser"
Well, he was right - a rouser it was. In the original run in 1966 Noel Coward played Hugo Latymer and Lilli Palmer played Carlotta. Apparently he found Lilli 'tiresome' but the original actress who he had in mind was Margaret Leighton and she mucked him about so much and would not make up her mind whether to take it or not and then wanted changes, that he wrote her a classic Noel tick off letter "I knew with a sinking heart that our professional values are sadly at a variance. If you had troubled to read the script you might have noticed that my part, out of the three is the least sympathetic....in fact, my dear Maggie having discussed the situation exhaustively with Glen and Binkie, we three decided that all things considered, we should really be better off without you"
Oo-er is all one can say to that!
An excellent evening in the theatre. Peter Egan who played Sir Hugo is a well known TV actor, I cannot recall seeing him in anything other than sitcoms or many moons ago, he played the Prince Regent in a TV drama. One forgets that these actors have a life outside the box and I was interested to see him 'live' as it were. Carlotta was played by Belinda Lang, another actor who I am only familiar with from TV, in this case as Troy in The Alleyn Mysteries made some years ago. The characterisation in this particularly ill judged adaptation was totally wrong, but this did not detract from her acting. One assumes you deal with the script you are given. So both good but my quibble about their performances was the fact that Peter Egan fluffed his lines and he and Belinda Lang frequently came in across one another's lines when it was clear that neither had quite finished. For two actors of this standard, this was slightly odd. However, as this play is going on tour and I gather Colchester was early on in the run, one hopes that in another week or two, they will get this right.
I came out feeling once again that Noel Coward was definitely The Master.
