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''Present Laughter'' is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 and first staged in 1942 on tour, alternating with his lower middle-class domestic drama ''This Happy Breed''. Later Coward's new play ''Blithe Spirit'' was added to the repertory for the tour. The play's title comes from a song in Shakespeare's ''Twelfth Night'', which urges ''carpe diem'' ("present mirth hath present laughter"), and so the word ''present'' in the title should be pronounced as the adjective , not the verb . The plot follows a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed light comedy actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in Africa. Amid a series of events bordering on farce, Garry has to deal with women who want to seduce him, placate both his long-suffering secretary and his estranged wife, cope with a crazed young playwright, and overcome his impending mid-life crisis (since he has recently turned forty). The story was described by Coward as "a series of semi-autobiographical pyrotechnics".〔Day, p. 527〕 Coward starred as Garry Essendine in ''Present Laughter'' during the original run. Later productions have featured actors such as Nigel Patrick, Albert Finney, Peter O'Toole, Simon Callow and Ian McKellen in the lead role. The play has enjoyed numerous revivals in Europe and North America – including a US tour in 1958 with Coward reprising the Essendine role. ==History== Coward wrote: "''Present Laughter'' is a very light comedy and was written with the sensible object of providing me with a bravura part".〔Coward, unnumbered introductory page〕 He completed the playscript (as well as the one for ''This Happy Breed'') in 1939, before the outbreak of World War II, but did not produce the plays until 1942. Given the hero's repeated laments over his own ageing and mortality, the title can be seen as ironic. Coward acknowledged that the central character, the egocentric actor Garry Essendine, was a self-caricature.〔Lahr, p. 34〕 Coward repeats one of his signature theatrical devices at the end of the play, where the main characters tiptoe out as the curtain falls – a device that he also used in ''Private Lives'', ''Hay Fever'' and ''Blithe Spirit.'' Coward had served the British government in intelligence work in the early years of the war.〔Koch, Stephen. ("The Playboy was a Spy" ), ''The New York Times'', 13 April 2008, accessed 4 January 2009〕 Winston Churchill advised Coward that he could do more for the war effort by entertaining the troops and the home front: "Go and sing to them when the guns are firing – that's your job!"〔Morley, p. 246〕 Though disappointed, Coward followed this advice. He toured, acted and sang indefatigably in Europe, Africa, Asia and America.〔("Light Entertainment", ) ''TIME magazine'', 19 July 1954, accessed 4 January 2009〕 The play was first produced in Blackpool in September 1942, during Coward's wartime tour of Britain after he returned to the theatre.〔Koch, Stephen. ("The Playboy was a Spy" ), ''The New York Times'', 13 April 2008, accessed 4 January 2009〕〔''The Observer'', 20 September 1942, p. 2〕 Sets and costumes were designed by Gladys Calthrop.〔"Gladys Calthrop", ''Who's Who in the Theatre'', 10th edition (1947), Pitman〕 The notices were excellent, with ''The Observer'' writing: "Mr Coward’s production is so inventive, and his own performance so adroit in its mockery of the vain, posturing, and yet self-scrutinising and self-amused matinee idol, that ''Present Laughter'' is likely to be future mirth for as long as Mr Coward cares to run it."〔Brown, Ivor, ''The Observer'', 2 May 1943, p. 2〕 ''The Manchester Guardian'' added: "One is tempted to cast discretion to the winds and predict that this will be remembered as the best comedy of its kind and generation...one of those rare occasions when the critic must claim the privilege of his fellow-playgoers, simply to marvel, admire, and enjoy wholeheartedly."〔''The Manchester Guardian'', 21 October 1942, p. 6〕 Coward brought the play to the Haymarket Theatre, London, in April 1947, where ''The Times'' praised it as "a wittily impudent and neatly invented burlesque of a French farce."〔''The Times'', 23 June 1947, p. 6〕 Coward also played in a French translation, ''Joyeux Chagrins'', in Paris in 1948.〔(Chronology ), Noël Coward Society〕 The play is published in Methuen's ''Noël Coward: Collected Plays Volume Four''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Present Laughter」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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