Understatement is part of what it is to be a professional actor. Less is more. Once in a while, though, it is a tonic to see abandon in a cast. Anthony Page's sublime production of Design for Living has a free-for-all naturalness that intoxicatingly offsets Noël Coward's artifice and control.
The play may, in part, be about the love that dare not speak its name, yet what cannot be said is ardently implied in this fast-and-loose, extravagant, hilarious exploration of passion between two men and a woman. It is a temporary triangle – as Gilda swaps partners – but with eternal hopes. Lisa Dillon is wonderful as febrile Gilda – restlessly commuting between armchair and chaise longue; Tom Burke's Otto is robust, vulnerable and delicious; Andrew Scott's marvellous Leo lives a perpetual morning after the night before.
And there never was a smaller part with a more comic effect than Maggie McCarthy's Miss Hodge the housekeeper. Three cities – Paris, London and New York – are conveyed with glamour by Lez Brotherston. A gorgeous evening: impure delight
