Three Plays: Private Lives, Blithe Spirit, Hay Fever [Hardcover]

Noel Coward (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday Book & Music Clubs (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568655347
• ISBN-13: 978-1568655345
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,729,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two classic plays and a fun bonus play, April 10, 2004

By 

J. Ott "John Ott" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Three Plays: Private Lives, Blithe Spirit, Hay Fever (Hardcover)

Noel Coward's irrepressibly witty style made him a huge theater success. He also wrote serious dramas (I recommend the screenplay BRIEF ENCOUNTER) but he will always be known for the type of plays included in this volume, two of which promise to endure.

BLITHE SPIRIT (5F, 2M) is my favorite of the lot. Writer Charles Condomine throws a dinner party and invites local medium Madame Arcati. At an after-dinner seance, the spirit of Charles' first wife is released into the house. The fact that only he can see her makes for some great comic scenes, and torments his second wife, Ruth, to no end. The end of the second act brings a surprising twist that further turns the spiritual tables on Charles. The themes of marriage and remarriage are also profitably taken up by...

PRIVATE LIVES (3F, 2M), perhaps Coward's best-known farce, and the last play in this volume. Two honeymooning couples find themselves at the same resort as their exes, provoking three acts of on-again off-again action and some hilarious one-liners. Love is a madness, the play says, and we enjoy hurting the ones we love.

The middle play of the volume, HAY FEVER, was one of Coward's early hits on the London stage, 1925 according to the dust jacket. Though it contains much in the way of funny banter, it does not hold up as well as the other two plays. It treats on a crazy family led by a histrionic matriarch and the unsuspecting guests they host one weekend. It has a large cast (5F, 4M), and those interested in ensemble pieces might want to take a look. The book is worth the read for BLITHE SPIRIT and PRIVATE LIVES alone. Consider HAY FEVER a bonus.

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