The Rat Trap (1918) is a four-act drama by Noël Coward, written when he was 18, but not staged until he was 26, by which time he was well known as a rising playwright, after the success of The Vortex. The play depicts the clash of egos between a married couple of writers, the wife's attempts to keep the marriage stable, the husband's philandering, her departure and his attempts to win her back.