Reviewed by:

• Noël Coward: The Playwright's Craft in a Changing Theatre by Russell Jackson, and: Masquerade: The Lives of Noël Coward by Oliver Soden
• Laura Milburn (bio)

There is already a large canon of literature (of varying quality and accuracy) regarding Noël Coward's life and work, including volumes written by Coward himself. Therefore, in order to justify penning yet another volume about "The Master," an author needs to find a new angle. Reading Russell Jackson's Noël Coward: The Playwright's Craft in a Changing Theatre and Oliver Soden's latest biography Masquerade: The Lives of Noël Coward, it is clear that they have both succeeded in doing so.

Jackson's and Soden's respective books differ in their approach and target demographic, but what they both have in common is their extensive use of archival research. Both have thoroughly researched the main Coward archives, which are currently divided between London (where they are administered by the Noël Coward Archive Trust) and the Noël Coward Collection at the University of Birmingham's Cadbury Research Library. It is the usage of the vast archival material that makes both books stand out and will ensure they are considered the primers for any scholar or theatre enthusiast going forward, and both gentlemen are very clear from the outset on the importance of the archival materials and what we can learn from them. At the start of his book, Jackson notes "the archive's script material, especially in the earliest manuscript drafts, conveys the impression of a playwright who is also an actor and director, seeing characters decisively from the outset, hearing the lines as he writes them and already directing the play in the theatre of his mind" (2).

Nevertheless, it is somewhat disappointing to see that the American archives have not been considered or consulted, with the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library in particular holding a substantial collection on Coward's theatrical career. For Noël Coward: The Playwright's Craft in a Changing Theatre, it is of less importance because Jackson's objective is to chart the development of Coward's writing methods, so the manuscripts, unpublished letters and diaries which are stored in the UK archives are of greater relevance and on which Jackson has based his study. It would have been interesting to read Soden's interpretation and discussion of the American theatrical reviews (specifically those found in the 'Collection of newspaper clippings of dramatic criticism' [*ZAN-*T282] at the NYPL) in Masquerade: The Lives of Noël Coward, but this new biography was largely a Covid-19 lockdown project. This, of course, meant that access to [End Page 266] all archives were heavily restricted for twelve months and travel to the USA was prohibited for even longer, so consideration must be given to the practicalities and meeting the deadline for publication to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Coward's death (and the start of a two-year celebration, named #Coward125 by the Noël Coward Estate, marking this anniversary and also the 125th birthday of Coward in 2024).

Coward's manuscripts are central to Jackson's argument that Coward was a "stickler for detail" (185) and "a tireless and enterprising worker" (185). Indeed, the study does give a "vivid sense of looking over the shoulder of an author who, above all, despite any setbacks before or during production, enjoyed exercising his craft as a playwright" (186). Jackson's study is arguably the first to provide the level of dramaturgical analysis and certainly the first to draw extensively on unpublished archive material. His approach is meticulous—he begins by providing an overview of Coward's career and the reception of his plays before offering a discussion on selected texts, working through Coward's career chronologically by decade from the 1920s through to the 1960s. As expected, The Vortex, Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for...

审阅者：

• 罗素·杰克逊的《诺尔·考沃德：剧作家在不断变化的剧院中的技艺》和奥利弗·索登的《假面舞会：诺尔·考沃德的一生》
• 劳拉·米尔本（简介）

关于诺埃尔·考沃德的生活和工作，已经有大量的文学经典（质量和准确性各不相同），其中包括考沃德本人撰写的书籍。因此，为了证明再写一本关于《大师》的书是合理的，作者需要找到一个新的角度。阅读拉塞尔·杰克逊的《诺尔·考沃德：变化的剧院中剧作家的技艺》和奥利弗·索登的最新传记《假面舞会：诺尔·考沃德的一生》，很明显，他们都成功地做到了这一点。

杰克逊和索登各自的书在方法和目标人群方面有所不同，但他们的共同点是广泛使用档案研究。两人都对主要的科沃德档案进行了彻底的研究，这些档案目前分布在伦敦（由诺埃尔科沃德档案信托基金管理）和伯明翰大学吉百利研究图书馆的诺埃尔科沃德收藏。正是对大量档案材料的使用使这两本书脱颖而出，并将确保它们被视为任何学者或戏剧爱好者的入门读本，两位先生从一开始就非常清楚档案材料的重要性以及它们的意义。我们可以向他们学习。杰克逊在书的开头指出，“档案馆的剧本材料，尤其是最早的手稿草稿，传达了一位剧作家同时也是演员和导演的印象，他从一开始就果断地看待角色，在写剧本时听到台词。并且已经在他心中的剧院里导演了这出戏”（2）。

然而，令人有些失望的是，美国档案并未被考虑或查阅，尤其是纽约公共图书馆的比利·罗斯戏剧部收藏了大量有关科沃德戏剧生涯的藏品。对于《诺埃尔·考沃德：不断变化的剧院中的剧作家的技艺》来说，这并不重要，因为杰克逊的目标是描绘考沃德写作方法的发展，因此英国档案馆中存储的手稿、未发表的信件和日记具有更大的相关性和杰克逊的研究就是以此为基础的。阅读索登在《假面舞会：诺埃尔·科沃德的一生》中对美国戏剧评论的解释和讨论（特别是在纽约公共图书馆的“戏剧评论剪报集”[*ZAN-*T282]中找到的评论）会很有趣。，但这本新传记主要是一个 Covid-19 封锁项目。当然，这意味着在十二个月内访问[完第266页]所有档案都受到严格限制，并且禁止前往美国的时间更长，因此必须考虑实用性并满足出版截止日期的要求。科沃德逝世 50 周年（以及由诺埃尔·科沃德庄园命名为#Coward125 的为期两年的庆祝活动的开始，既纪念这一周年，也纪念科沃德于 2024 年诞辰 125 周年）。

考沃德的手稿是杰克逊论点的核心，杰克逊认为考沃德是一个“注重细节的人”（185）和“一个不知疲倦和进取的工人”（185）。事实上，这项研究确实给人一种“站在作者身后观察的生动感觉，最重要的是，尽管在创作之前或期间遇到了任何挫折，他仍然享受着作为剧作家的技巧”（186）。杰克逊的研究可以说是第一个提供戏剧分析水平的研究，当然也是第一个广泛利用未出版的档案材料的研究。他的方法非常细致——他首先概述了考沃德的职业生涯和他的戏剧的接受情况，然后对选定的文本进行了讨论，按时间顺序从 1920 年代到 1960 年代，按十年顺序回顾了考沃德的职业生涯。正如预期的那样，《漩涡》、《花粉热》、《私人生活》、《设计》……