The Vortex is a play in three acts by the English writer and actor Noël Coward. The play depicts the sexual vanity of a rich, ageing beauty, her troubled relationship with her adult son, and drug abuse in British society circles after the First World War. The son's cocaine habit is seen by many critics as a metaphor for homosexuality, then taboo in Britain. Despite, or because of, its scandalous content for the time, the play was Coward's first great commercial success.
Noël Coward and Lilian Braithwaite in Act III
The Lancasters: left to right, Florence, Nicky and David
Kate Cutler, seen here in Coward's 1923 play The Young Idea, dropped out of the leading role at the last moment but later played the role on tour.
Act II (left to right): Clara, Nicky, Florence, Tom, Helen, Pauncefort, Bunty and Bruce (original cast)
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".
Coward in 1972
Coward (left) with Lydia Bilbrook and Charles Hawtrey, 1911
Coward in his early teens
Coward in The Knight of the Burning Pestle in 1920
