DO we unduly patronise the drama of the past? Is there a tendency to dismiss all drawing-room comedy as dated? Having seen vibrant revivals of one play by Somerset Maugham and two by Noël Coward, I would say the answer to both questions is yes. I was struck by how warmly audiences responded to the plays and how they belied their reputation as gossamer trifles.
Maugham’s, written in 1921, is Tom Littler’s first production as the artistic director of the Orange Tree, Richmond, and turns up trumps. Set in the Dorset home of a stiff-backed MP, Arnold Champion-Cheney, the play asks whether each generation is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
