Noel Coward featuring in jazz comedy (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Noel Coward featuring in jazz comedy

ONE of Noel Coward's finest and funniest comedies, Present Laughter, is delighting audiences at the Everyman until April 8.

Set in the glamorous world of the theatre during the Jazz Age, Present Laughter is a marvellously comic exaggeration of the life that whirled around Coward in his heyday.

Flamboyantly dressing gowned, and devastatingly handsome, Garry Essendine (Simon Callow) may be teetering reluctantly towards middle age but everyone, both male and female, is infatuated by him.

The master of scalpel-sharp repartee, ruthless put-downs and spectacular tantrums, his life is one long performance in which he can never be himself.

Simon Callow is one of the UK's most celebrated actors and glittering film career includes show stealing performances in A Room With A View, Amadeus and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Present Laughter is an excellent example of Coward at his very best - the bitchy, camp and furiously plotted comedy still stands the test of time.