Comedies of Realism and Romance

Hay Fever divides its characters into oranges and lemons, the alive, mischievous, theatrical family, and their ordinary, bemused guests. The tension arising is the mainspring of this great comedy. Princess Nadya moves during the course of The Queen Was in the Parlour from Parisian free love and dope to queenship, suppressing a revolution en passant. This Was a Man is a comedy of sexual intrigue and reversal embodying the ‘modern’ 1920s permissiveness. Censored in London it enjoyed uneven success abroad. Home Chat, another comedy of manners is carefully constructed, but its moral reversal leaves audiences floundering. Bitter Sweet’s book, music and lavish sets idealises love, placing it within a framework of marriage, yet seasoning it with astringency, emphasising ephemerality while retaining a language of undying fidelity. There are Freudian depths in Private Lives. It probes sexual intimacy and the response to disillusion is the defiance and laughter of great comedy.