Nicky Lancaster is a young pianist, newly returned from a spell in decadent and glamorous Parisian society, with some dubious new habits.  While he has been gone, his glamorous and self-absorbed mother, Florence, has taken up with Tom, the latest in a succession of lovers half her age.  Nicky introduces his mother to Bunty, his fiancée, but the cracks in their relationship are evident from the beginning.  As his relationship with Bunty falls apart and his cocaine habit worsens, Nicky confronts his mother over the emptiness and loneliness of her life and blames her for what he has become.

Although witty and vibrant, The Vortex was way ahead of its time and explores the dark, poisonous side of the fashionable 1920’s cocktail party set, depicting drug abuse, sexual vanity, gossip, and infidelity.  Coward’s first big success (1924) set him up for many future accolades.

‘Noel Coward’s swirling jazz age psychodrama ★★★★.’ The Guardian

‘Fabulous new life for Noël Coward’s scandalous drama.  Half a century after the death of its author, this production firmly reminds us that Coward is not simply a writer of light comedy, but a masterful social observer ★★★★.’  The Telegraph