Noel Coward is brilliantly demonstrating himself to be about the most agile person on the stage. He can even beat out a pretty fair tap dance but that isn't exactly what's meant. It's the verve and vigor that underlies that ventriloquist's dummy manner of his, that sets one grinning with admiration.

Noel is no coward when it comes to work. He has written nine racy little playlets for this project. They come in groups of three, as follow: given twice already, and to come again Saturday evening, Oct. 31; Wednesday matinee, Nov. 4; Friday evening, Nov. 6--"Hands Across the Sea," "The Astonished Heart," Red Peppers." Wednesday evening, Oct. 28; Thursday evening, Oct. 29; Monday evening, Nov. 2; Wednesday evening, Nov. 4; Saturday matinee, Nov. 7--"We Were Dancing," Fumed Oak," "Shadow Play." Friday evening, Oct. 30; Saturday matinee, Ot. 31; Tuesday evening, Nov. 3; Thursday evening, Nov. 5; Saturday evening, Nov. 7--"Ways and Means," "Still Life," "Family Album."

The first piece of the first batch listed above gives an acute analysis of the ways and woes of a charming hostess who endeavors to entertain some dozen heterogeneous people at once, and wins by being vague. The next is a grim one: a diagnostic study of a diagnostic man. It shows what happens when a psychiatrist has a love affair. The third snaps itself abruptly to the vaudeville stage and gives us Noel asking his lovely, amazingly gifted partner, Gertrude Lawrence, "Who was that woman I saw you with last night?" The versatility of the pair is so great that the audience is highly taxed to muster the corresponding versatility that is required. As for the rest of the plays we cannot say. But all you playgoers, take your chance along with the CRIMSON Playgoer; the risk is very small.