Noël Coward Conference - University of Birmingham
A Two Day Interdisciplinary Conference, University of Birmingham
Location
Edgbaston Park Hotel
Dates
Thursday 15 June (00:00) - Friday 16 June 2023 (00:00)
‘There are probably greater painters than Noel, greater novelists than Noel, greater librettists, greater composers of music, greater singers, greater dancers, greater comedians, greater tragedians, greater stage producers, greater film directors, greater cabaret artists, greater TV stars. If there are, they are 14 different people. Only 1 man combined all 14 different labels: the Master.’ (Lord Mountbatten at Coward’s 70th birthday party. Coward, Noël. The Letters of Noël Coward. Edited by Barry Day. New York: Methuen Drama, 2007, p.3)
‘It is foolish for a writer constantly to decry the critics; it is also foolish, I think, for the critics to constantly decry anyone who writes as well as I do. […] The battle, of course, will never end until the grave closes over me, and then! Oh dear, the balls that will be written about me.’ (27 December 1964, after the reception of Pretty Polly Barlow. Noël Coward Diaries, edited by Graham Payn & Sheridan Morley, London: Macmillan, 1982, 584)
In 1999, as part of the Noël Coward Centenary, and to mark the acquisition of the Noël Coward Collection, the first conference devoted to his work took place at the University of Birmingham. Selected papers from this conference were subsequently collected in a volume, Look Back in Pleasure (Methuen 2000). 2023, marks the fiftieth anniversary of his death and provides a timely opportunity to re-evaluate the significance of this major cultural figure by offering new ways of engaging with his life and achievements.
One of the principal aims of the conference is to take an interdisciplinary approach to Coward’s influence beyond the realm of the theatre to include his work as a novelist and short story writer; his work as a composer, lyricist and singer; his work in cinema as actor, screen writer and director as well as the figure of Coward himself, who carefully fashioned and sustained an instantly recognized public persona.
Topics for papers and panels might include (but are not limited to)
Coward on film
Coward & politics, class, imperialism, Empire & patriotism, both World Wars.
Coward & his circle / contemporaries
Coward, gender & sexuality
Coward & musical theatre
Coward, celebrity, stardom and self-fashioning
Acting & directing in Coward
‘Offshoots,’ parodies & appropriations of Coward & his work
Coward in the West End and on Broadway
Coward & Modernism
