Date: Fri 08-Mar-1996

Publication: Ext

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-10

Quick Words:

rev-theatre-Twilight-Wharf

Full Text:

(rev Noel Coward's "A Song at Twilight" at Long Warf, 3/9/96)

Theatre Review-

Coward's Swan Song Works The Tension

(with photo)

By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN - Noel Coward made his acting debut at age 11; he published his

first play when he was 18 years old. For the rest of his life, he would be

supremely successful in this dual career of writing and acting on the stage

and screen.

In 1966, nearing the end of his life, he wrote - and starred in - a trilogy

that would be acclaimed as his "swan song": Suite in Three Keys (comprised of

two one-act works) and a full-length bitter comedy he called A Song at

Twilight .

Twilight exemplifies what Coward was justly famous for. It is a highly

crafted, tightly plotted work exploring the relationship between a man and two

women, all highly intelligent and adept at verbal swordplay, so much so that

the clever wit of the individual remarks serves as a counterweight to the

mounting dramatic tension.

Currently on the New Haven stage of Long Wharf Theatre, A Song at Twilight

takes place in a luxury Swiss hotel suite. Hugo Latymer, the protagonist, is a

famous writer, now grown into an aged and sickly invalid. Hugo is cosseted by

his pragmatic and imperturbable German wife, Hilde. When the play opens, Hugo

is nervously awaiting a visit from Carlotta Gray, a beautiful actress with

whom he once had a love affair many years ago.

Hilde disappears, arranging for the pair to be left alone. It soon becomes

clear Carlotta is a woman who has come in search of revenge. The affair was

casual cruelty, carelessly dished out and long forgotten by Hugo, but not by

the lady, and she has reached the point in her own life - career over,

marriages ended - when she is living for the sole purpose of paying back the

man who humiliated her.

Hugo is rich and successful, but behind the facade of his public life the

private man harbors dark and painful secrets. It is these secrets Carlotta

intends to expose to the world. The interaction between Hugo and Carlotta, and

subsequently between Hilde and the pair of former lovers, crackles with

intensity.

Fritz Weaver gives a striking performance as the writer who sacrificed

whatever meaningful relationships he might have had for the sake of his art,

keeping himself aloof from real involvement and using other people as material

for his sardonic wit.

Rochelle Oliver, who replaced Tammy Grimes at the last minute, is very intense

as the elegant but grimly focused Carlotta, armed with information that is

more destructive than any handgun.

However, the strongest portrayal of all is by Long Wharf veteran Joyce Ebert,

who gives the character of Hilde levels of depth and complexity that are truly

powerful.