Tuesday 6th October 2026 at the Grand Theatre and Opera House, York
⭐⭐
Tracy-Ann Oberman is once again flipping scripts – last time from patriarch to matriarch in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (a wonderfully refreshing production), this time as Geri, the female iteration of Garry Essendine in Noël Coward’s Present Laughter. It’s a shift that feels set to follow in the footsteps of Marianne Elliot’s brilliant gender-switched take on Sondheim’s Company, spotlighting the double standards of women acting just as freely as male counterparts, but somehow this production doesn’t land quite right, and it boils down to a lack of laughs in what should be a comedic play.
Now, Coward’s script, following the ups and downs of a bona-fide star entertaining nightly dalliances, has many a witty one-liner, and there’s plenty of intelligence and sharp social commentary on display, but the piece as a whole feels wordy and muted. Peter Mckintosh’s costume and set design give us a plush glimpse of a comfortable life, but also makes for some stilted, lengthy exchanges on sofas. Granted, the first act inspires sparse titters, but the show is at times quite dull and seems to save all its best laughs for the second act – meaning those not returning after the interval missed what might have made them feel the trip was worth the effort.
Oberman is a great presence, bringing threads of many great divas of stage and screen to the tapestry she weaves as the magnetic Geri. It’s a performance full of affectation, posturing and unshakeable assertiveness. But somehow it feels like the comedy lies in a more heightened take, and what we have here is trying to be more natural where the script seems to cry out for the outlandish – and while there are certainly flashes of it, as in the much improved second act, it leaves the first remarkably laughter-less.
Adrian Lukis is a solid, stoic presence and surprising source of quiet comedy as the long-suffering ex-husband, and Seb Carrington gets some good giggles through his comic overzealousness as one of Geri’s lovers. Unfortunately, while Kit Young’s performance as Johannes had the heightened element I was hankering for, the character is so deeply unlikeable as an arrogant, aggressively assertive male that his would-be comedy feels uncomfortable, even if it is set a few decades ago.
James Dreyfus on the other hand gets the biggest laughs, as the no-nonsense, much-aggravated, sharp-tongued secretary of the rebellious icon centre stage. There’s a moment in which Monty deals with the olfactory oddities of superfan/stalker Rosina (well-played in all her eccentricities by Eva Feiler) that feels like a revelation of what could be for the rest of the show with some bolder choices from director Lindsay Posner. And Oberman gets far better material too, finally getting those deserved laughs as the farce picks up pace and ludicrousness.
Ultimately, this comic play lacks laughs for the most part and while the potential for hilarity is ever-present, when the funnier side does come more clearly to light, it’s all a bit late.
Present Laughter is at the Grand Theatre and Opera House, York until 10th October 2026 – more information and tickets can be found here.
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