Noel Coward's classic The Vortex at Chichester Festival Theatre: 'An entertaining and thought-provoking start to the CFT’s 2023 season' | Review

Drug addiction, female sexual promiscuity and a hint of homosexuality in the upper classes? You can imagine all the pearls being clutched.

At the centre of the titular vortex is Florence Lancaster, an ageing society beauty who pulls a string of admirers into her orbit to maintain an illusion of youth and desirability.

At odds with this image are her prematurely old husband and her son Nicky, a drug addicted, closeted musician who seems to have inherited many of the same traits as his mother.

Almost 100 years after its debut, award-winning actress Lia Williams – seen recently as Wallis Simpson in The Crown – stars as Florence opposite her real-life son, Joshua James, which explains the electric chemistry between them.

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This is a play all about the relationships: mother and son, but also son and unhappy fiancée, who of course is the former lover of Florence’s current beau and turns his head, much to her anguish.

As her vacuous veneer cracks, Williams isn’t afraid to throw it all at the wall, screaming, lobbing chairs and rolling around on the floor.

But it is her final scene with James which hits hardest, as Nicky tries to understand the deep-rooted unhappiness he shares with his mother for the roles society has enforced on them both.

In this production, three acts are rolled into one, which works well, allowing the vortex to spiral seamlessly towards its conclusion - a motif reflected to great effect in the spinning stage and the subtle switch from realistic props to bare and stylised staging.

There were attempts to take the play out of period, including some more modern outfits, props (record players) and a slightly jarring rendition of a David Bowie song.

But this was a small distraction to what was otherwise an entertaining and thought-provoking start to the CFT’s 2023 season.

Until May 20. Tickets are £10 to £46. Go to cft.org.uk.