The Vortex by Noel Coward

This play caused a sensation when first staged in 1920s London. It tells the story of Nicky, a young pianist returning from a spell in Paris, supposedly the citadel of decadence, with some dubious new habits. In his absence, his socialite mother, Florence, has amused herself with the latest in a succession of lovers half her age, while her poisonously catty friends roll their eyes over her vanity and obsession with youth.

With Coward’s usual acerbic wit he draws the characters around his leading
themes, that of emotional dependency between mother and son complicated by Nicky's drug-taking, the ambiguity of his sexuality and Florence's complete self-absorption and fear of becoming old and losing her identity.

There is still plenty of Coward humour in this play but beneath the wit there is always an awareness of the social elite, surviving after the First World War and not knowing where reality starts and ends.