The Epps Cast.  Photo by Geoffrey Wade. 

Bravo, bravo, bravo to a sensational production, yet another triumph for the Antaeus Company.   Broadway World 

Jason Rohrer, Stagehappenings

This handsome production will get an audience ... but it especially ought to be seen by young people, and most specifically by those who don't think they like theater. Disguised as imagined history, like all great art it's about the future. It's a very traditional-looking show, with its detailed Tom Buderwicz set and gorgeous costumes by Jessica Olson, yet it feels vividly new, as Coward so frequently does. We can't resist him. He's as compassionate as writers get, and his sympathy lies with the audience. Therefore ours lies with him.    Stage Happenings  

L. to R.  Rebecca Mozo, Daniel Bess, Josh Clark, Jason Henning, Bill Brochtrup. Photo by Steven Brand.

Barnaby Hughes, SoCal  

... an immensely entertaining and enjoyable gem of a play. The Antaeus Company is to be commended for rescuing Noel Coward's "Peace in Our Time" from obscurity and for adapting it so smoothly and seamlessly.   SoCal 

Casey Stangl's direction is nothing short of miraculous. This is a small house with a small (though rather deep) stage space, but she keeps the large cast in effortless motion. And she understands how to use light, movement, and shadow to focus attention-leaving images that linger in your memory as giant close-ups. WeHo News 

Premiere of Peace in Our Time: October 23, 2011

Six of the California members of the Noël Coward Society attended the Premiere performance of Peace in Our Time by the Epps cast on Sunday afternoon, October 23rd.  In honor of this historic occasion, Antaeus kindly allowed us to pose on the set after the show, lined up in front of the bar in The Shy Gazelle.  Elated by the stirring performance, we joined the artists for a Gala celebration in the Antaeus library.

Symposium on Coward and His Works: October 30, 2011  

The following Sunday, an enthusiastic audience participated in a pre-matinee symposium in the Deaf West Theatre. Featuring Barry Creyton (actor, director, author, and adapter of Peace in Our Time) with Kathy Williams, U.S. West Coast Liaison for the Noël Coward Society, the two hour event included half an hour of Q&A at the end.    

Starting off on a humorous note with favorite quips from The Master (suitable for a mixed audience), Barry and Kathy alternated descriptions of Coward's wartime work with readings and personal views, musical moments and clips of Sir Noël being interviewed, and closed with reading of a favorite work each (Barry: "The Awakening" and Kathy: circa 1956, a letter to Marlene Dietrich, offering stern, "Dear Abby"-type advice to Marlene, who was obsessed with Yul Brynner, whom Noël had nicknamed "Curly.") Remarkably, several audience members asked for a copy of the notes from the talk.  We couldn't have liked it more. 

Long-time personal U. S. representative for Noël Coward, and a Trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation for many years, Geoffrey Johnson flew in from New York to see the November 20th matinee of Peace in Our Time.  

Geoffrey greeted the Stubbs cast after the show: he was generous in sharing a few anecdotes about Coward and enthusiastic in his praise of the show, expressing a hope that there will be additional productions of this fine adaptation.  The Antaeans responded in kind, thanking Geoffrey and the Foundation for their three years' support of The Young Idea Project and Peace in Our Time. 

Front Row Center: Barry Creyton and Geoffrey Johnson on the set with the Stubbs. Photo by Kitty Swink.