Nude with Violin is a play in three acts (later revised into two acts) by Noël Coward. A light comedy of manners, the play is a satire on "Modern Art", criticism, artistic pretension and the value placed on art. It is set in Paris in 1956 and portrays the effect on the family and associates of a famous artist when it is revealed after his death that he painted none of the pictures signed by him and sold for large sums. The action is mostly under the discreet control of the artist's valet, Sebastien, who manipulates events to bring about a happy ending for all the characters.
Its original London production, opening on 7 November 1956, was successful, running for more than a year, starring, successively, John Gielgud, Michael Wilding and Robert Helpmann. Coward played the lead role in the Broadway production in 1957. The play has rarely been professionally revived.Lesley, pp. 314, 370 and 361Lahr, p. 136
Background After the Second World War Coward strove with mixed success to regain his pre-war popularity. His 1945 revue Sigh No More had run for only 213 performances in the West End, and the failure of his musical Pacific 1860 in 1946–47 was in contrast to the success of the show that followed it at Drury Lane, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, which ran for more than ten times as long. Of Coward's subsequent London productions, only Relative Values had been a firm success at the box office (477 performances in 1951–1953).Mander and Mitchenson, p. 430 Quadrille (1952–53) ran for just under a year,Mander and Mitchenson, p. 440 and three other shows had shorter runs.
Coward had become a tax exile earlier in 1956, and was not allowed by the British authorities to re-enter the country before April 1957.Hoare, p. 420 So that he could see his new play the pre-London tour began outside the UK – in Dublin. When Coward arrived there from the US in time for the second performance, he cut and revised parts of the script. He was credited as co-director with John Gielgud, who also played the lead role, Sebastian.
West End and Broadway premieres After a tour beginning at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, on 24 September 1956, where it played for two weeks, Nude with Violin opened in London on 8 November 1956 at the Globe Theatre (now called the Gielgud Theatre). It ran until 1 February 1958,"Theatres", The Times, 1 February 1958, p. 2 a total of 511 performances.Gaye, p. 1535 During the London run Gielgud was succeeded, as Sebastien, first by Michael Wilding and then by Robert Helpmann.
After a pre-Broadway tour, a production opened at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway in November 1957, starring the author as Sebastien. It ran there for a limited season of 86 performances."Nude with Violin", Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 11 May 2019 Coward then presented and starred in the play in San Francisco and Los Angeles, in repertory with his 1939 comedy Present Laughter.Mander and Mitchenson, p. 466
Characters and original casts RoleLondonNew York Sebastien John Gielgud Noël Coward Marie-Celeste Gillian Webb Thérèse Quadri Clinton Preminger Jr John Sterland William Traylor Isobel Sorodin Joyce Carey Joyce Carey Jane (her daughter) Ann Castle Angela Thornton Colin (her son) Basil Henson John Ainsworth Pamela (Colin's wife) Patricia Rayne Iola Lynn Jacob Friedland David Horne Morris Carnovsky Anya Pavlikov Patience Collier Luba Malina Cherry-May Waterton Kathleen Harrison Mona Washbourne Fabrice Douglas Robinson Robert Thurston Obadiah Lewellyn Thomas Baptiste Cory Devlin George (a press photographer) Keith Green Robert Wark Lauderdale (a schoolboy) Nicky Edmett Bobby Alford Source: Theatrical Companion to Coward.Mander and Mitchenson, pp. 460 and 468
Synopsis The play was originally in three acts, with one scene in the first and two in the second and third. By the time of the London opening Coward had regrouped it into two acts, of two and three scenes. The play is set throughout in the studio of the late Paul Sorodin, in Paris in 1954. The studio is large and luxuriously furnished, but shows no evidence of Sorodin's own work.Coward, p. 11
Act 1 The famous artist Paul Sorodin has died. In the studio his valet, Sebastien Lacréole, and maid, Marie-Celeste, are awaiting the family's return from the funeral. A young American reporter, Clinton Preminger Jr, talks his way in, hoping for an interview with the artist's widow, Isobel. She returns, accompanied by her son Colin, daughter-in-law Pamela and daughter Jane. Isobel and Sorodin had been estranged, and Jane hardly knew her father but has inherited his sense of humour and kindness. The family is joined by Jacob Friedland, an art dealer who has for many years handled Sorodin's pictures and looked after his financial affairs. They eject Clinton.Coward, pp. 12–22
Sebastien pours champagne and proposes a toast to his former employer – "a man who ... contrived to enjoy life to the full, and at the same time remain a hero to his own valet".Coward, p. 24 Jane asks Jacob about her father's work. He explains that it was concentrated into three great periods: the "Farouche", dating from 1927 into the early 1930s; the "Circular", from 1933 to 1939; and the post-war or "Jamaican" period.Coward, pp. 25–26
Jane insists to her family that, since Sorodin died intestate and Isobel will inherit his large fortune, it is only right to make provision for the faithful Sebastien. Isobel is persuaded to offer Sebastien the choice of a small pension or a cash lump sum. He politely declines both and tells the family and Jacob that he has been entrusted by his late master with a letter, now safely lodged in a bank. He reads them a copy of the letter in which Sorodin states that, with the exception of a watercolour of a dog painted when he was a child, he never painted a picture of any kind throughout his life.Coward, pp. 31–38
Act 2, Scene 1 A few hours later. The Sorodins and Jacob discuss the position as they dejectedly sit at the dining table. They decide that they must find the "ghost" artist who painted the pictures. Isobel wants to buy his silence, but Jane and Jacob argue that whoever painted the pictures should be given credit for them. Sebastien tells them that in the bank, along with the original of the letter, there is the key to a studio in a Parisian suburb in which there is one final "Sorodin" masterpiece, "Nude with Violin".Coward, pp. 39–47
The doorbell rings and Clinton rushes in. He has learnt about the picture from a telegram from America: Elmore P. Riskin, director of the Manhattan Museum of Modern Art, is flying over to buy it. Clinton asks to see it, but Sebastien pretends that it is being varnished. They promise to telephone Clinton when it is ready, and he leaves.Coward, pp. 48–49 After his departure Anya Pavlikov is announced. She is, it emerges, a Russian princess, a former lover of Sorodin's, who painted all the pictures from the "Farouche" period. Although she has promised, and been handsomely paid, not to reveal the secret, she attempts to blackmail the family by threatening to publish Sorodin's letter to her in which he acknowledges the fraud and offers her hush-money. Sebastien happens to have sufficiently embarrassing information about Anya to counter her attempt at blackmail, and she departs in a fury.Coward pp. 50 –61
Act 2, Scene 2 Five in the afternoon, the following day. Sebastien is pestered by Clinton for information about Sorodin but finally gets rid of him. He telephones Jacob Friedland to tell him that Anya is returning with Sorodin's incriminating letter, which she will hand over for a price.Coward, pp. 63–70
Jane is distressed to learn that her father was a fake, but Sebastien assures her that Sorodin was an idealist with "a fanatical, burning hatred of dishonesty", a crusader who loved good art and loathed "the cant, intellectual snobbism and commercialising of creative talent". He perpetrated his deceptions to defy other art critics and dealers, including Jacob.Coward, pp. 70–73
Cherry-May Waterton, a blowsy, cheerful, middle-aged blonde, enters accompanied by her boyfriend, Fabrice. Cherry-May, another of Sorodin's former lovers, was, it emerges, the painter of his "Circular" style pictures. She too has brought a copy of a document incriminating Sorodin and hints that her claims may be settled by the purchase of a chicken farm for Fabrice. Colin Sorodin becomes truculent and Fabrice knocks him down. The brawl is abruptly halted by Marie-Celeste's announcement of Obadiah Llewellyn, an impeccable West Indian, holding a document in his hand. "My God!" exclaims Sebastien, "The Jamaican period!"Coward, pp. 74 –82
Act 3, Scene 1 A few hours later. Jacob is in an adjoining room talking to Obadiah, and the family are awaiting the outcome of that discussion. When Jacob returns he reports that Obadiah is not bribable: he is a Seventh Day Adventist and has religious scruples about his deception, feeling that, to save Sorodin's soul, he must publish the truth. Sebastien suggests that, if all else fails, he has a shady friend who would be willing and able to abstract the relevant document from Obadiah's pocket.Coward, pp. 83–90
Cherry-May returns; Jacob agrees to provide the funds for her boyfriend's chicken farm and dispatches her to Biarritz to retrieve the original document. When all the visitors have left, Sebastien sends the frantic Jacob home to bed, telephones his underworld friend and asks him to come round: "No knives or firearms necessary, but you might slip a cosh in your pocket in case of unforeseen developments".Coward, pp. 91–99
Act 3, Scene 2 Next morning Clinton has called with a press photographer to take a picture of "Nude with Violin". He is ecstatic, but the photographer, George, is obviously unimpressed, and the family, when they appear, are reduced to helpless laughter by what they see as a dreadful painting.Coward, pp. 101–105 Jacob is shocked by their philistinism, but Sebastien cheers him up by reporting that Obadiah is on his way back to Jamaica. No theft has been necessary: Sebastien and his underworld friends staged a revivalist meeting and persuaded Obadiah to destroy the document as an act of faith. As compensation, Obadiah has been satisfied with £50 for a stained-glass window in his church.Coward, pp. 105–109
The appalling quality of "Nude with Violin" makes Jane suspect that Sebastien painted it – initiating a fourth period in Sorodin's fictitious output, "Neo-infantilism". He firmly denies it. It emerges that the painter was Sebastien's son, the young Lauderdale, and that there are more of his paintings in storage, all signed by Sorodin, which he can sell to collectors at a vast profit. Jacob is appalled at the deception and threatens to expose it. Sebastien points out that Jacob's own finances and professional reputation would be destroyed by such a revelation. The family agree, and the curtain falls as Sebastien is about to usher in Elmore P. Riskin and his English counterpart, Sir Alaric Craigie.Coward, pp. 109–115
Revivals Helpmann led the cast in a tour of Australia after the play closed in London in 1958, and also in a televised version broadcast in the UK in 1959."Theatre", The Times, 25 November 1957, p. 3; and 22 July 1959, p. 2 The televised version featured Hermione Baddeley as Cherry-May and Patience Collier reprising her stage role as Anya."Coward comedy on ITV: Nude with Violin", The Manchester Guardian, 22 July 1959, p. 5 A later television version aired in 1964 in Melbourne, starring Terry Norris."ABV–Channel 2" at 8:30, The Age, 8 April 1964, p. 11, accessed 7 October 2014
In Coward's centenary year, 1999, the play was mounted at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, starring Derek Griffiths as Sebastien, Marcia Warren as Isobel, Tamzin Malleson as Jane, and Nick Caldecott as Clinton; Marianne Elliott directed."The Information on Noel Coward's Nude with Violin", The Independent, 16 July 1999, accessed 13 July 2013