Talisker Players - Where Words And Music Meet

Bonus concert

Sunday, January 13, 2013 • 3pm.
Innis College Theatre, 2 Sussex Avenue at St. George, Toronto
Afternoon tea to follow, 4:00 pm, in the Atrium

Programme notes
by Laura Jones

Noël Coward was born in a modest suburb of London on the cusp of the 20th century. Sent to dancing school by his mother, he caught the performing bug, and was appearing as a professional actor in the West End by the time he was 12 years old. At 14, he became the protégé of a society painter, Philip Streatfield, who gave him an entree into high society, which quickly became his natural element.

A tubucular tendency relieved him of duty in WWI, and gave him the opportunity both to hone his acting and to commence what was to be a prolific writing career. By the 1920s he was writing, producing, directing and acting in his own plays, at a rate that led to a collapse in 1926 - after which he took his schedule firmly in hand.

When WWII began, he resolved to make up for his lack of participation in the first Great War, lending his talents to the British Secret Service. His mission was to influence American opinion in favour of joining the British against Hitler. Ironically, this injured his reputation at home, amongst people who thought he should be cheering up his fellow Britons and not gallivanting abroad.

After WWII, theatrical styles changed, embracing realism and method acting, and Coward's style was for a while eclipsed. But by the 1960s his popularity had rebounded, and his reputation for wit, grace and tyle was never again challenged.

The selections on our programme take a full cross-section of Coward's song-writing output. Despite having virtually no formal musical training (he ran screaming from the room when confronted by the rules of harmonic voice leading) he had a phenomenal natural gift for composition. We offer examples of his witty word play, his wistful waltzes, some biting humour and some wry observation of the world. Above all, we celebrate his extraordinary "talent to amuse".