One does not usually think of the late Sir Noël Coward, that ubiquitous eminence of the British theatre for five decades, as being particularly a "political" dramatist…. Even critics and students of the theatre appraising his career generally begin by acknowledging his wide-ranging versatility and then tend to concentrate their attentions on his major, most frequently staged comedies. Those plays (Hay Fever, Private Lives, Blithe Spirit, Design For Living, and Present Laughter) are characterized by their clever dialogue, a lightning-fast repartee, and the sparkling, yet blasé, sophistication with which they dispatch the stylish indulgences of the clever, such little pleasures of life as a menage à trois, adultery, spiritualism, or general Bohemian non-conformity. Even his final play, the three-part Suite in Three Keys …, which dealt in part with homosexuality, was voted by the Outer Critics Circle as the "best comedy" of the 1974 season. Although Coward achieved his first...