Design for Living

The Old Vic

11^th October 2010

I can’t pretend to know a great deal about Noel Coward. Beyond a presumption that Cowards plays played with the decadence, flamboyance and frivolity of the roaring twenties and thirties I honestly had no idea what to expect sauntering up to the Old Vic on Monday. Yet, despite, this blatant ignorance I found myself braving a tube strike, delving into my incredibly empty bank account and meeting an old friend to watch, what I have now come to discover as one of Cowards most controversial and in my opinion, revolutionary of plays.

Initially the production played right into my preconceptions, or perhaps idealisations of the era, all the drama, glitz, glamour, ostentation and over exuberant arm gestures that I’d imagined so commonplace within that world and I lapped it up with complete eagerness. Gilda, Otto and Leo, all perfectly played with a vivacious and highly charged energy, drew me into a world of emotional and artistic unrest, lows and highs, and never more such dramatic episodes, arguments and revelations than you would expect from those of a creative nature. The combined wit of the playwright and the players, made for a wonderfully ticklish performance, precise, poised and perfectly placed dialogue punctuated by polite giggles and raucous laughter alike from the audience around me. Yet, for all its zeal and captivating vitality I found myself completely enamoured, not by the glamour of the era or the sumptuous and full flavoured characters but by Cowards exploration of the very nature of love, dependency and what it means to be fulfilled by someone else.

By establishing a relationship which can only function in a 3 way part between Gilda, Otto and Leo, Coward condones and perhaps even encourages us to function, live, learn, love, within our own context, inspiring bravery and individuality from his audience. In fact, he firmly sets down the idea that, when it comes to love, there are no rules (something few, but the brave will openly admit to). Naturally, we only come to accept this when we are presented with characters who we truly believe are only able to function in this manage a trois and, like a song in three parts, Gilda, Otto and Leo are presented in the Old Vic’s production as three parts of a whole, each subtly balancing the other, pacifying, exciting, and loving. As Gilda, Lisa Dillon perfectly plays the personal discontent and strife growing from a feeling of something missing within her relationships with Otto and Leo individually. It is the restlessness created by Lisa Dillon as the unfulfilled Gilda, which in this production presents the threeway relationship, not as a raucous, or depraved sexual romp, but as one which is a fully functioning and loving relationship. For my part, Cowards play and The Old Vic’s production, left me questioning the very nature in which love can exist and wondering if, perhaps in the future I shouldn’t be so quick to judge, anyone…but mostly polygamists. Whoever said "two's company, three's a crowd" hadn't seen Design for Living.