Noel Coward’s Hilarious Comedy Rings True Today

by Jenyth Jo

What’s better than a midsummer night play in an outdoor amphitheater? Add a beautiful studio set in striking nocturne blue, a clever, hard-working maid, and a foolish, aging actor, and you have the recipe for pleasurable present laughter.

And an exciting new actor to Bay Area theater opens the show. Fabulous Gibraltar native Ella Frances Vatvani enters in a beautiful robe, playing ingenue Daphne Stillington. As Daphne, Vatvani smirks her way into our hearts. So pleased that she’s seduced the famous actor into seducing her, she commands the household. “Though she be small, she is fierce.”

Vatvani’s later fainting scene had me clutching my splitting sides in laughter. Our entire row tried not to fall off the wooden benches at the Orinda Community Center Amphitheater.

Acclaimed stage star Garry Essendine (perfectly cast Matt Cardigan-Smith) has bungled all his romantic adventures. Many believe Coward wrote his own life in this 1943 play. Cardigan-Smith parodies the struggles and complaints of the purely pleasure-seeking, narcissistic male.

Elegant in beautifully tailored costumes, Cardigan-Smith glides across the stage, intentionally overacting. His total commitment to Essendine’s over-the-top behavior makes his scenes a delight. With every flick of his perfectly coiffed hair, the actor’s mid-life crisis unfolds.

In the morning, Essendine’s nightly conquests emerge from the guest room, proclaiming the playwright’s witty lines. The serving class knows exactly what’s going on, even though the seduced debutantes and self-important aristocrats don’t get it. Coffee? Sure—but don’t wake the master.

The other characters relish laughing at Essendine’s self-congratulatory antics. His wise secretary Monica (spot on Shiv Harris) winks at us as she covers up yet another of his romantic capers.

A strange and obsessed young playwright, played by Max O. Chang, always laughs at the wrong time, so we laugh with him. Essendine’s estranged wife (droll Amy Stringer) laughs at him, too, but she softens in sympathy for his insecurity— just for a while.

In our time of influencers struggling to create their own fame and fortune, “Present Laughter” reminds us that the ‘famous’ need followers to remain relevant. Without an adoring audience, an actor or a president, loses his way. A delightful evening in the outdoor theater exposes how a self-involved and self-deluded wannabe star operates.

“Present Laughter” by Noel Coward, directed by Patrick Atkinson, set & costumes by Matt Cardigan-Smith, light & sound by Ken Sollazzo, at Orinda Starlight Village Players, Orinda, California.

Info: orsvp.org – to August 15, 2026.

Cast:  Marc Berman, Kelsey Bye, Matt Cardigan-Smith, Max O. Chang, Mimi Hamilton, Monica Reed, Kenneth Matis, Yvette Niccolls, Will Spongberg, Amy Stringer, and Ella Frances Vatvani.

Banner photo: Kenneth Matis, Max O. Chang, Shiv Harris, Amy Stringer, Will Spongberg, Matt Cardigan-Smith, Photos: Matt Goff Photography