The Vortex (1969)

Margaret Leighton turns in quite an emotional performance as the socialite "Florence", married to decent but rather subdued 'David" (Patrick Barr) and mother to her surprise visitor "Nicky" (Richard Warwick) who has arrived with some startling news. That's just the first shock for this family as the evening pans out delivering some home truths that have long been festering between mother and son. The play was written by Noël Coward in 1924 when it's subject matter must have ruffled feathers as it dealt with infidelity, drug use, and the desperate cravings for affection regardless of age and/or social standing. Though the production is a little stagey, it flows well for seventy minutes with Leighton and Warwick exchanging dialogue that vacillates between the loving and the positively loathing. Exasperation and frustration are never far from the lips of just about everyone, and the support from Felicity Gibson ("Bunty") and Barry Justice ("Tom") gives the crescendo effect at the end a sense of temperamental panic that is both dark yet ever so slightly optimistic, too.