Semi-Monde

Semi-Monde is easily the most visually daring of his comedies, and the most intellectually startling ... Semi-Monde is made up of sexually mischievous tableaux vivants and gets much nearer the homosexual knuckle than Coward's public image allowed" ~ John Lahr, London Review of Books

Written in 1926 and originally entitled Ritz Bar, Semi-Monde was considered too daring for its time: "its production in London or New York seemed unlikely as some of the characters, owing to lightly suggested abnormalities, would certainly be deleted by the censor" ~ Noël Coward, Present Indicative

The play finally received its public premiere only after Coward's death, at the Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow, in September 1977