MEET NOËL COWARD’S THROUPLE
OF ARTISTS IN THE 1930s

Garikayi Mutambirwa, Brooke Bundy and Kyle T. Hester

Kyle T. Hester and Sheelagh Cullen

And in the past, the two men lived together, so it’s only natural that when Gilda leaves them both rather than choose one over the other, the two men soon begin to travel the world together as very successful artists in their own right, one a playwright (like Coward himself) and the other a painter of portraits for the wealthy. But when Gilda leaves them both to marry art dealer Alfred (Andrew Elvis Miller) and move to New York City to live as his wife in his 30th-floor luxury apartment, why then isn’t she really happy or fulfilled after becoming a successful and sought-after, high society interior decorator?

Andrew Elvis Miller

And as the years pass and their duo relationships ebb and flow, the trio reunite and finally admit what they really want is to all live together and let the bed partners fall where they may. That’s a pretty modern storyline, and one that, as expected, raised London society’s eyebrows.

In the sure and respectful hands of director Bart DeLorenzo who keeps Coward’s wordy play moving at a fast pace with lots of action filling the stage as scenes switch between Otto’s studio in Paris to Leo’s flat in London and then Ernest’s apartment in New York, the ensemble cast has a ball (literally and figuratively) as they waltz around each other, dropping hints but too terrified to just live the way they want to — until living apart draws them back together with a rush of emotions that cannot be denied.

Garikayi Mutambirwa and Brooke Bundy

As Gilda, Brooke Bundy is delightful while flashing her assets in lovely lingerie as she jumps from one man’s arms to the next, along with shifting her living arrangement from one to the other. You see, the play opens in Otto’s (Garikayi Mutambirwa) Paris art studio in which we meet Gilda as Alfred arrives to share his latest art acquisition with Otto, who has not returned from his travels to paint a wealthy woman out-of-town. So when hunky Leo (Kyle T. Hester) enters in his underwear from Gilda’s bedroom, we get a real sense of her dilemma when Otto arrives home and the fireworks begin to fly between the three. Otto is hurt that she would cheat on him with “Leo of all people” and storms off. So what is Golda supposed to do? She moves with Leo to London to create a new life there.

With Gilda and Leo being looked after by Miss Hodge (Sheelagh Cullen), a very proper English woman who is shocked when she learns after 18 months that Leo and Gilda are not a married couple. But things seem to be going well until Leo returns home to discover Otto has spent the night with Gilda! Tons of Coward’s well-constructed banter surrounds the three, after which Gilda leaves to find yet another new life, leaving the two men to get drunk, which of course leads them back into each other’s arms to enjoy the hottest hook-up in the play. For as Leo says, “Life is a pleasure trip!”

Garikayi Mutambirwa, Brooke Bundy and Kyle T. Hester

In the hands of these three accomplished actors, Coward’s most autobiographical play shines brightly, written to “fulfill a pledge to his dear married friends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine” so they could perform it together. In fact, as DeLorenzo shares in program notes, “Coward wrote the play on a boat idling up the South American coast” to write it for them to perform together. “The plot of three inseparable friends striving to forge a life in the arts without the compromises of conventionality didn’t stray far from their own origin stories. And the most risqué aspects of the play, the romance and sexuality, also dabble with autobiography” without going into further details. Now I wonder, but then again, the more power to them to have lived the lives they wanted without worrying about how society viewed their lifestyle. And of course, that’s exactly how the trio of characters design to live their lives.

Brooke Bundy, Garikayi Mutambirwa, and Andrew Elvis Miller

And I have to say after seeing many of Coward’s usually much-too-long witty examinations of social mores, I really enjoyed this production more than any other due to the more contemporary storyline and DeLorenzo not stressing the “Britishness” of the characters, allowing them to speak more like residents of the world rather than just one place. That made the dialog easer to follow and kept the story moving along at a more balanced pace.

Of course, I think there was a scene about the party in Ernest’s New York apartment where actors Max Pescherine, Shireen Heidari and Sheelagh Cullen (in a different role) that could have been omitted by just allowing Ernest and Gilda to be talking about how wonderfully high-class their lives are when interrupted by Lotto and Leo prior arriving to claim Gilda as their own. I mean, why make actors wait backstage for more than half of the play just to go on in one scene to show how uppity New York society was when the other four actors could have accomplished that on their own. After all, “brevity is the soul of wit” according to Shakespeare. But that’s just my opinion and who am I to question the brilliance of Noël Coward’s storytelling skills?

 Sheelagh Cullen, Shireen Heidari, Max Pescherine, Kyle T. Hester, Garikayi Mutambirwa

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photos by Cooper Bates

Design for Living
Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd
2 hours, 10 minutes with intermission
ends on August 25, 2024
for tickets (PWYC-$40), call 310.477.2055 ext. 2 or visit Odyssey Theatre
*Wine Night Fridays: Enjoy complimentary wine and snacks
after the show on the third Friday of every month

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