Review: FALLEN ANGELS, Menier Chocolate Factory

The 2025 revival of Noël Coward’s Fallen Angels at the Menier Chocolate Factory, directed by Christopher Luscombe, offers a polished, refined evening of comedy, one that reminds us why Coward’s wit, even after a century, can still sparkle with mischief. This is the first London production in 25 years, and it arrives with a cast that honours the play’s flirtatious, farcical spirit while also ensuring the characters retain warmth and vulnerability.

Set in a chic 1920s London flat worthy of a glossy magazine spread thanks to designer Simon Higlett, the production does well to place the audience into the right era. The baby-grand piano and the tasteful furniture create a perfect backdrop for the mayhem that unfolds as two well-to-do married women, Julia Steroll (Janie Dee) and Jane Banbury (Alexandra Gilbreath), receive news that a former lover Maurice (Graham Vick), a man who romanced them both, may be returning to London. Their comfortable, respectable lives are suddenly filled with temptation, jealousy and desire. 

Dee’s Julia begins the play the very model of composure and social grace, yet her restraint gradually slips as she becomes anxious and flustered at the thought of rekindled passion. Her journey from poised civility to longing is executed with comic precision, each hesitation and line-delivery resonates with the audience. Gilbreath’s Jane, by contrast, is more earthy and volatile. She’s quick to drift into hysteria, then laughter, then cold realisation. Her physical comedy in the dinner-scene gone awry, the tipsiness, the careless blur of innuendo, the loss of decorum, is without a doubt one of the highlights of the evening.

Dee and Gilbreath are brilliant as the two childhood best friends whose lives are disrupted by the unexpected visit, their chemistry is electric. From the first hints of attraction to the gradual sliding into drunken desperation, they navigate Coward’s dialogue with precision, exuberance and a sense of shared history that makes their friendship feel lived-in. Even in the quieter moments their glances and subtle expressions carry as much weight as the lively banter. 

Supporting them is Sarah Twomey, whose character Saunders, the maid, sparkles with sly humour and sharp observation. She flits about the edges of the main drama, making witty asides, managing smooth scene-transitions and exposing the claims of her employers with a knowing glint in her eye.

The production is set at a comfortable pace. It moves from polite innuendo and rising anticipation to chaos, cocktails and heated confessions, culminating in a deliciously absurd crescendo of jealousy, laughter and regret. The clever dialogue and the cast’s careful timing deliver many funny, and some more emotional, moments.

It’s a night of humour, subtle longing and quietly sharp social observation. For those who appreciate well-crafted comedy with a vintage edge, Fallen Angels is a thoroughly enjoyable reminder of why Coward remains a master of the drawing-room farce.

Fallen Angels is at Menier Chocolate Factory until 21 February 2026.

Buy Tickets to Fallen Angels