The play depicts a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed light comedy actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in Africa. Present Laughter is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 but not produced until 1942 because the Second World War began while it was in rehearsal, and the British theatres closed. The title is drawn from a song in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night that urges carpe diem ("present mirth hath present laughter"). The play has been frequently revived in Britain, the US and beyond In 1974, the National Theatre's production at The Old Vic starred Joan Plowright as Stella Kirby, Michael Jayston as Charles Appleby and Geoffrey Palmer as Geoffrey Farrant. The production was adapted for BBC Radio 4 that same year, described as a "stereophonic radio version"