English Touring Theatre was whisking its audiences back to the 1930s last week in a froth of socialites, respectable working-class families and troubled middle-class housewives.

Watching the Noël Coward marathon at Oxford Playhouse was akin to enjoying a luxury box of chocolates — each tasty morsel was a delight, while the variety of flavours whetted the appetite for more. Tonight at 8.30 brought together nine one-act plays by the Master that had not been seen in their entirety since the heyday of his career. Fashioned into three trios under the headings Cocktails, Dinner and Dancing, you could three evenings or go for the ‘full monty’— working through the entire collection on Saturday.

I chose to see Dinner as it featured Still Lives. I was curious to see the germ of a story that blossomed into the film Brief Encounter — and I was not disappointed. Though obviously more economical than the movie, containing only the famous station buffet scenes, its intensity was magnified and the sexual tension between Shereen Martin and Gyuri Sarossy as Laura and Alec was palpable.

The two other pieces were new to me. Ways and Means, a frothy comedy, was a soufflé of fun in which Kirsty Besterman and Sarossy as impecunious socialites Stella and Toby become embroiled in delightfully silly shenanigans to hide the fact they are broke. Besterman has mastered the portrayal of the cut-glass Coward heroine perfectly and also showed her diversity in the following piece, Fumed Oak.

In this she gave another great performance as the pretentious hen-pecking Doris Gow, wife to long-suffering Henry (Peter Singh) in what the author descr-ibed as “an unpleasant comedy in two scenes” but which reminded me of an episode of EastEnders — if it was being played for laughs.

It was apparent that there was a remarkable sense of the company behind this venture. The actors each had their moments in the spotlightt while their generous performances in the supporting roles strengthened each playlet enormously.

This was a marvellous celebration of the ethos of English Touring Theatre in this, its 21st year.