<DIV><P>Philip Hoare, in his biography of Coward described <I>Semi-Monde </I>as his "most daring play to date. In a chic Parisian hotel, a series of sexual<br>pairings take place through rendezvous, arguments, infidelities and<br>reconciliations: sexual deviance is undisguised…set in the bisexual<br>1920s, the play could easily be populated by characters of Coward's<br>society". </P><P><I>Point Valaine</I> is "the<br>drama of a lurid episode of lust in the semi-tropics.. unmistakably the<br>work of a master of the stage" (New York Times); <I>South Sea Bubble </I>which<br>concerns "the Governor's lady in the Isle of Samolo who plays with<br>native fire, nearly gets her wings singed, bashes her native admirer<br>with a bottle and at one of those Coward next-morning-at breakfast<br>scenes slips her way out of the scrape with feline grace." (Manchester<br>Guardian) whilst <I>Nude With Violin</I> is a witty comedy about art fraud.</P></DIV>