Theater Opening: Noël Coward’s THE VORTEX (Chichester Festival Theatre)

Opening the Chichester Festival Theatre 2023 season is a tantalisingly decadent production of The Vortex by Noël Coward – his first big commercial hit that he also starred in himself. For tickets and more info on the season (which includes a revival of Sondheim’s Assassins), visit CFT.

The central relationship is that of a mother and son, and CFT has announced that Florence and Nicky Lancaster are to be played by mother and son Lia Williams (Doubt, The Crown) and Joshua James (Young Chekhov trilogy). The play comments heavily on the “rotten” decadent societal mores of the 1920s. The young, cocaine-addicted snob, Nick Lancaster, blames his uselessness entirely on the manner in which his mother raised him. Florence, Nick’s ungracefully aging mother, believes her problem is that she is fundamentally misunderstood, but her real problem is that she is soul-killingly selfish. “You never love anyone, you only love them loving you,” Nick tells her. While Vortex is certainly not Coward’s best or most complex play, the younger characters are a vivid reflection of those children who grew up during our decadent 90’s boom cycle, making Coward’s concerns once again pointedly relevant.

“It’s got all of the flamboyance, excitement and dexterity of wit that Noël Coward is such a genius at, but it’s also got real depth and pain, and it opens out in a really, really surprising way, even now.”

Lia Williams on The Vortex