Easy Virtue

Noel Coward wrote Easy Virtue in 1924 when he was just 23, and it remains one of his least-known works. The play centers around the Whittaker’s, a dysfunctional family who seem to depend on tension and trauma. Colonel Whittaker is a former philanderer who now takes any and every opportunity to annoy his repressed and uptight wife, while their daughters, Marion and Hilda, are both highly strung and prone to meddling. Into this explosive mix enters John, their only son who has returned from the continent. However, the family is shocked to find that he has also returned with a wife, an older, glamorous divorcee with a scandalous past. It takes just three months for John and his wife, Larita, to learn that they married on impulse and are radically unsuited to each other. The play climaxes with Larita’s dramatic, jewel-laden appearance at the family dance, as she leaves the shrewish Whittaker women behind and returns her young husband to the hands of his wholesome former sweetheart.