Noel Coward Celebrates Savvy Maid in Devilish Comedy

by Joseph Mutti & Barry David Horwitz

Noel Coward’s “Fallen Angels” presents us with two self-involved, flamboyantly dressed flappers with money and privilege who are anything but angelic.

The title suggests a serious critique of the racy, wasteful Roaring Twenties—the angels expelled from Heaven for tempting humans to sin.

Sure enough, our “angels,” Julia (enthusiastic Kina Kantor) and Jane (effervescent Emily Newsome), are infatuated with a former lover, Frenchman Maurice Duclos (gyrating Joel Roster), who is visiting London.

The self-satisfied young women are beside themselves, and jealous of each other to boot. They agonize over their duty to their lackluster, pompous British husbands. Their craving for another fling with Maurice also risks expulsion as temptresses from their own Heaven: their social set.

They look down their noses at their far more educated and worldly housemaid Saunders (consummate Cindy Goldfield). Goldfield is marvelous as the wise and witty maid, sauntering in and solving every problem and question with ease.

In Coward’s tospsy-turvy social world, the maid plays a version of the playwright himself. Born working-class, Noel Coward outperformed the privileged elite, culturally and intellectually. The maid and the playwright are both outsiders–he doubly so for being closeted gay. Goldfield’s marvelous maid outperforms her bosses–demonstrating the superiority of the exploited class.

Noel Coward’s satire of the elite class applies equally to US now. The characters could easily leave aside their faux English/French accents and expose the same class divide today.

Julia’s husband Willy (spot-on Kevin Clarke) holds tightly to his conceited and clueless assurance of his “solid,” loveless marriage. He is utterly unable to believe Julia’s past dalliance, even when Maurice dramatically enters the scene.

Michael Barrett Austin plays Fred, Jane’s dull husband, with aplomb. Less naïve than Willy, but nonetheless ready to believe the two women’s cover story, for they are upright, society “angels” after all.

They are all part of the pretentious world in which they live, devoid of any concern for their “inferiors.” Scenic designer Mikiko Uesugi’s spot-on Art Deco sitting-room and Maggie Moran’s delightful costumes perfectly define their prison.

In the shadow of the upcoming election, “Fallen Angels,” an invigorating if lengthy romp, exposes the huge gulf between the working and ownership classes. Has much changed in the 100 years since this play was first performed?

 

“Fallen Angels” by Noel Coward, directed by Tom Ross, scenic design by Mikiko Uesugi, costumes by Maggie Moran, lighting by Jim Cave, and sound by Ray Archie, at Aurora Theatre, Berkeley. Info: auroratheatre.org – to November 17, 2024.

Cast: Michael Barrett Austin, Kevin Clarke, Cindy Goldfield, Kina Kantor, Emily Newsome, and Joel Roster.

Banner photo: Emily Newsome & Kina Kantor. Photos by Kevin Berne