Coward Plays: 6: Semi-Monde; Point Valaine; South Sea Bubble; Nude With Violin by Noel Coward
Philip Hoare, in his biography of Coward described Semi-Monde as his most daring play to date. In a chic Parisian hotel, a series of sexual pairings take place through rendezvous, arguments, infidelities and reconciliations: sexual deviance is undisguised...set in the bisexual 1920s, the play could easily be populated by characters of Coward's society. Point Valaine is the drama of a lurid episode of lust in the semi-tropics. unmistakably the work of a master of the stage (New York Times); South Sea Bubble which concerns the Governor's lady in the Isle of Samolo who plays with native fire, nearly gets her wings singed, bashes her native admirer with a bottle and at one of those Coward next-morning-at breakfast scenes slips her way out of the scrape with feline grace. (Manchester Guardian) whilst Nude With Violin is a witty comedy about art fraud.