Blithe Spirit, Hay Fever, Private Lives: Three Plays

Probably his three greatest plays all bound together in one easy to read book

So...I bought this only for Private Lives, because I knew I'd be going to a well-reviewed DC production, and, if possible, I like to read a play before I see it - an acquired preference from classical theater and opera.And speaking of acquired, Coward's that kind of taste, isn't he? Particularly 70-90 years after he wrote these confections? Well, it's a taste - for dry, bantering, cleverly corrosive wit - I acquired long ago, before Coward, and so I found Private Lives HOWLINGLY funny on the page and on the stage. I sat up late last Saturday to read this, and I feared I'd wake up the house with my whoops and guffaws. Coward cracks wise about every third line, and it's just so...so...so...black tie-wing collar-patent leather pumps-English. (I wanted to say Wildean, but that would be Irish, wouldn't it?) This is what Elizabethan comedy's superabundance of clever clever clever words words words evolves into in London's West End between the Wars. So demmed smart (as in "smart set" smart, not smart as "intelligent" - although it's that, too, in trumps). And so trippingly like what every bright Oxbridgean wants to sound like at the cocktail party.Of course, the story is ridiculous. But with a neatly balanced three acts, which takes reader or theatergoer up a clever hill and down a similar, similarly bright, hill for a somewhat predictable conclusion, handsomely wrought, at a pace, even on the page, that's racehorse brisk.In the theater, the play literally crackles, throws off sparks, shimmers like shook foil. There we sit - we're Victor and Sybil, wholly conventional, in our conventional little lives, supermarket-rack best-sellers on our night tables, with our comfy jobs, and comfortable incomes - watching these upper-crust Wildings toss the conventional order, between sips of bubbly, as it suits their whims, with an insouciant noblesse oblige and without a care concerning who or whom they may run over by accident.Delightful. Delicious.I'm now a new Noel Coward fan and look forward to exploring his plays, prose, music, and interesting life. (Mad "coincidence": I was laid up sick as a dog in the same Shanghai hotel in which, also sick as a dog, Coward wrote Private Lives in 1930. Right: no real coincidence, okay, okay, but I felt a little more grounded in his world, in a memory of my looking out the window on similar Shanghai streets and the Huangpu River: the Cathay was an elegant venue, the brightest light on the Shanghai bund, in 1930. Fifty-some years later, the carpets were threadbare, the brass tarnished, the water somewhat rusty, but it still had a perceptible, albeit faded, Art Deco elegance. And fabulous "puffs of cream" from the ancient pastry chef of the famous restaurant...perhaps descendants of the same puffs Coward might have enjoyed in 1930 after recovering from his ailment...)

Blithe Spirit - 5 starsPrivate Lives - 4 starsHay Fever - 3 stars Put it all together and you've got a terrific edition of Noel Coward plays

Everybody needs a set of Coward Plays if you are in the theatre!

Can't get into it. seems dusty. Blithe Spirit ( I found the best of the 3) was a better read for me because it's the most visual and the characters seem more clearly defined. Hey this classic stuff has been around near 100 years and people still perform it laugh at the jokes so what do I Know?

BLITHE SPIRIT remains my favorite Noël Coward play. I love the movie with Rex Harrison. This book is well printed and has a fair price.

The collection is great, though I only read "Hay Fever" before watching it performed and I certainly got a laugh out of it.

I had to read this for my Costume Design class this past Spring semester. We only used it for one play, the "Private Lives." So although I cannot review the other two plays, "Private Lives" was the most frustrating, agonizing, and drawn out play that I have ever read as a Theater Major.

This is good value, but be warned: we used it at a play reading of Hay Fever and found that our script had at least 3 half-pages of text more than the official play-reading single-play volume. This gave rise to some frowns and smiles, as we expected characters to come in and speak, while everyone else had moved on by several short speeches and wondered why we weren't coming in on cue. Even the ending was different. That said, when we compared the differences afterwards, we agreed this version of the play was actually better.

The script enables one to enjoy the plays at one's own pace, savouring each word and getting more from the keen wit than is possible from a pacy theatrical production or film.Of course, reading enables one to cast one's own characters and not have them forced into the mould chosen by some director or other, but with such familiar plays as these, it is inevitable that some stars of screen will assert themselves.I had no sooner read the first few pages than I realised that a friend would enjoy it too, so I had to get a second copy to give away, and I suspect I may return for more in the future.

Delivery was prompt. Scripts are well printed and easily read, while the plays are, of course, excellent (especially Blithe Spirit)! As there are only 3 plays in this book it is very portable.

These are possibly Noel Cowards best plays. Wonderfully funny, inventive and charming. This edition is well produced and remarkably good value.

bought from amazon & was a lovely christmas present(of) for my lovely sister from up north