Noel Coward's Design for Living, Playbill/Theatre Programme : Oxford, Playhouse, February 1944

Six-panelled, folded leaflet, a playbill for a 1944 production of Noel Coward's risque play, Design for Living, at the Oxford Playhouse, 21-26 February 1944. The programme is a little tanned towards the top but otherwise in very good condition. A wartime production, the programme urges theatre-goers to bring their gas masks with them and gives instructions on what to do in the event of an air raid. With a cast list, featuring Jane Henderson as Gilda, Raymond Somerville at Ernest and David Greene as Otto. Surrounded with contemporary advertisements. Approximately 8 by 10 inches, unfolded. Design for Living is a comedy play written by Coward in 1932, as a vehicle for his friends, Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt. It premiered on Broadway, partly because its subject matter was thought unacceptable to the official censor in London. It was not produced in London until 1939.