Design For Living (1979)

In 1932 Paris, a Bohemian interior designer (Rula Lenska) lives with a painter (Clive Arrindell) but when her old flame (John Steiner) returns, she reattaches herself to him. The men are both good friends and all three seem to be attached at the hip. She tries to break free of them by leaving them both but it's only a matter of time before they track her down. Directed by Philip Saville, this "shocking" (for its day) play opened on Broadway in 1932 but it wasn't until 1939 that it made its way to London. It's a difficult play to pull off and a lot of it depends on the casting. The three characters are so self involved, impervious to others and amoral that it's hard to warm to them so you need likable actors with crack comedic timing or it all falls flat. This production falls flat. The two male protagonists are played by actors who are effete, sexless and they swish and pose (which isn't Coward's intention) that you wonder what Lenska sees in them. None of the actors have comedic timing but at least Lenska has a strong sexual presence and she gives a sense of what Coward had in mind. The homosexual undercurrent that is only hinted at in the play is given full exposure (certainly by the way the actors play it) in this production and the director even has the two men take a shower together before falling into each other's arms. Painfully unfunny. With John Bluthal, Dandy Nichols (giving the best performance) and Helen Horton.