'Design For Living' at The Old Vic

Last week we went to see Noel Coward's 'Design For Living' at The Old Vic. There's some background you need to understand before I launch into a review. A few days previously I'd attended an 'audience' at the Royal Festival Hall with Stephen Sondheim as part of his 80th birthday celebrations and he slagged off Mr Coward. We'd also been to see 'Krapp's Last Tape' by Samuel Beckett at the Duchess theatre the day before, with Michael Gambon as Mr Krapp and I, um, nodded off during it. The shame. One of the highlights of the 50 minute play was Mr Gambon eating a banana so, after a hard day at work, can you blame me? So. Both of those recent events meant I not only had to stay awake, but I had to pay attention.

'Design For Living' is a tale of the eternal love triangle in which two young men love the same woman and they also love each other. At the start of the play, Gilda is the partner to artist Otto in Paris, then she becomes the partner of playwright Leo in London after which she runs off to New York and marries an old friend of her mothers' while Otto and Leo presumably console themselves with each other before tracking their love to New York and ... well, that would be telling.

The play is charming and intelligent, engaging and, rather sadly, doesn't have every sentence ending with the word 'darling'. It's very worldly wise and was initially banned in London, presumably due to the free love and gay themes. My reading of the play is that it is about the nature of love and art, not of sex. However, since it was The Old Vic then there were the obligatory school-kids-on-a-trip to the theatre and the girls couldn't help but giggle out loud when the lads snogged on stage.

The production is getting great reviews but I found it a bit hit and miss. The sets were great and justified the two half-times so the sets could be changed, but I found some of the acting to be a bit so-so. Lisa Dillon was great as Gilda, flitting from man to man and disdaining marriage until the final act, a free woman with personal wealth at her disposal so she can be and do as she pleases. I also liked Andrew Scott's Leo, the playwright, who has some great extended and breathless lines, but he was a little bit whiny at times. I was less keen on Tom Burke's Otto, the artist, who seemed to be playing it lazy since he has floppy hair and therefore we must automatically love him. I didn't. His delivery and approach sometimes just seemed to be rather lazy and by numbers rather than putting any real effort into it.

I (thankfully) didn't have any problems in staying awake during the play, it was light and airy, we had a Coward witticism every few lines and it was nicely paced. And the sets were great - have I mentioned that? If anything, it's made me want to see more Coward plays. Go and see it while you can.