{"title":"No\u00ebl Coward","role":"Playwright","image":"","lede":null,"content":"

NO\u00cbL COWARD <\/strong>(Playwright<\/em>) was born in Teddington, Middlesex, England to Arthur Coward (sometime piano salesman) and Violet (soon to become the archetypal \u2018stage mother\u2019.) He made his professional stage debut as Prince Mussel in The Goldfish<\/em> at the age of 12, which led to many child actor appearances in the next few years. He played the character of Slightly in Peter Pan\u2014<\/em>which later caused critic Kenneth Tynan to remark\u2014\u201cForty years ago he was Slightly in Peter Pan<\/em> and you might say that he has been wholly in Peter Pan<\/em> ever since.\u201d Several of his own early plays reached the London stage briefly but it was the controversial The Vortex<\/em> (1924) that proved to be the breakthrough. With its overt references to drugs and adultery, it made his name as both actor and playwright in the West End and on Broadway. No\u00ebl seemed to epitomize the spirit of the frenzied 1920s and a string of successful plays ensued\u2014Hay Fever<\/em> (1925), Fallen Angels <\/em>(1925), and Easy Virtue <\/em>(1926), as well as several intimate revues for which he wrote words and music. The momentum continued into the 1930s. Private Lives<\/em> (1930) saw him appearing with a childhood friend, Gertrude (\u201cGertie\u201d) Lawrence and that partnership continued professionally with Tonight at 8.30<\/em> (1936). Writer, actor, director, songwriter and writer of verse, essays and autobiographies, he was called by close friends \u2018The Master,\u2019 a title of which he was secretly proud. As World War II broke out he had two plays waiting to be produced\u2014This Happy Breed<\/em> and Present<\/em> Laughter\u2014<\/em>but they would have to wait until 1943. Meanwhile, there was Blithe Spirit <\/em>(1941), a subversive comedy that ran longer than the war. \u2018No\u00ebl\u2019s War\u2019 was an active one\u2026 troop concerts at home and overseas\u2026 touring in plays\u2026 producing classic films such as; In Which We Serve<\/em> and Brief Encounter<\/em>\u2026 and acting as an unofficial spy for the Foreign Office! The post-war years saw his star in temporary eclipse. Austerity Britain\u2014<\/em>the London critics determined\u2014<\/em>was out of tune with the brittle Coward wit. His plays enjoyed only modest success but No\u00ebl responded by \u2018re-inventing\u2019 himself as a cabaret and TV star, particularly in America, which had never undervalued his multiple talents. Indeed No\u00ebl had a love affair with America ever since his first visit to New York in 1921. Over the years most of his plays had successful Broadway productions and indeed some of them premiered there including Design For Living<\/em>, starring the Lunts in 1933, Sail Away<\/em> (1961), The Girl Who Came To Supper<\/em> (1963), and High Spirits<\/em> (1964). He left the UK in the mid-1950\u2019s and settled in Jamaica and Switzerland. In the early 1960s, critical opinion in Britain turned yet again. He was now demonstrably \u201cour greatest living playwright\u201d. \u2018Dad\u2019s Renaissance\u2019\u2014<\/em> as No\u00ebl gleefully dubbed it\u2014<\/em>was under way and has never faltered since. He and his work are today more popular\u2014<\/em>and on a worldwide scale\u2014<\/em>than ever before. In 1970 came the long overdue knighthood. In 1973 he died peacefully and was buried in his beloved Jamaica.<\/p>","website":"","alt":""}