Sir Peter Hall’s new production of Noel Coward’s 1924 play The Vortex, starring Felicity Kendal and Dan Stevens, will transfer to the West End in the new year. It will open at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, following a brief regional tour.
Coward’s savage portrayal of 1920s cocktail society centres on the tempestuous relationship between glamorous socialite Florence Lancaster (Kendal) and her hedonistic musician son Nicky (Stevens), whose new girlfriend is wooed by Florence’s toyboy lover. The Vortex (the title refers to the "youth vortex of beastliness") launched the then 25-year-old Noel Coward’s career as a playwright and leading man.
Felicity Kendal was seen in the West End last year in Hall’s revival of David Hare’s Amy’s View. Dan Stevens starred alongside Judi Dench last year in Coward’s Hay Fever at the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket, also directed by Hall.