Design for Living (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Noel Coward
- First Published: 1933
- Type of Plot: Comedy
- Time of Work: The 1930’s
- Setting: Paris, London, and New York
- Principal Characters: Gilda, Leo, Otto, Ernest Friedman
- Genres: Drama, Comedy, Boulevard drama
- Subjects: Values, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Sex or sexuality, Gender roles, New York City, Paris, 1930’s, London, Painting or painters, Drama or dramatists
- Locales: New York, NY, Paris, France, London, England
The Play
Design for Living opens in Otto’s shabby Paris studio, at about ten o’clock on a spring morning. Gilda adds a coffeepot and milk jug to the breakfast table, laid for two, looks into the bedroom, and closes the door. She answers a knock at the front door, and Ernest enters, carrying an Henri Matisse painting he wishes to show to Otto. Gilda claims that Otto has neuralgia and must be left undisturbed. They discuss Otto’s talent and Gilda’s maternal concern for him; Gilda complains of the squalor of the studio, and Ernest complains of the untidiness of...
[The entire page is 3128 words long]
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