THEATRE: Design For Living – Old Vic

 
The trouble with the Old Vic’s revival of Noel Coward’s play about Bright Young Things is that while the three principals are certainly Young, and may be rather ambiguous Things, there is very little that’s Bright about them whatsoever. Gilda, a wealthy but bohemian interior decorator, cannot decide whether she is more in love with Otto, a promising painter, or Leo, an increasingly successful playwright. While she boomerangs from bed to bed, Otto and Leo struggle to resolve their own passionate relationship. And though Design For Living proves a delightful romp through the trials and tribulations of this 1930s ménage a trois, there’s precious little psychological substance to this masquerade.
 
Moments of sheer luminosity come from the playful pairing of Tom Burke’s Otto and Andrew Scott’s Leo.  Scott’s one-note petulance grates somewhat in the first act, but develops into a deliciously mercurial portrait of a boyish playwright enjoying the superficiality of success.