tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post5103111202118075152..comments2023-09-20T14:34:21.102+02:00Comments on Postcards from the Gods: Present Laughter - National TheatreAndrew Haydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05568061302451610140noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post-81813422806817709342007-11-08T03:46:00.000+01:002007-11-08T03:46:00.000+01:00"Essendine... listens to the announcement that war..."Essendine... listens to the announcement that war has been declared. It’s a strange decision, since having heard it, neither he nor any of the other characters feel move to comment on the fact that war has broken out": indeed, they carry on preparing for a tour of bloody Africa as if nothing had happened!<BR/><BR/>You seem to have a lot more time for this production than most people; indeed, it requires a lot more time than most productions of the play. (Did I take you to a production of it at Birmingham Rep several years ago?) But the more I think about the now three productions of it I've seen (not that many, really), the more I'm growing persuaded that it's a play more honoured in the memory than in the actual staging and watching. It ought to be prime Coward cappuccino: frothy yet biting, with a bit of a charge to it. But I suppose that in the end he's simply too ambivalent about the self-parody (and the sexuality business forms only a minor component of that ambivalence).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com