Promotional postcard for The Vortex by Noel Coward. First produced at the Everyman Theatre, 25th November 1924. The play depicts the sexual vanity of a rich, ageing beauty, her troubled relationship with her adult son, and drug abuse in British society circles after the First World War. The son's cocaine habit is seen by many critics as a metaphor for homosexuality, then taboo in Britain. Despite, or because of, its controversial content for the time, the play was Coward's first great commercial success. Artist: E. P. Kinsella. Touring to Theatre Royal, Plymouth, 10th August 1925.