 TONIGHT AT 8.30
A sequence of Nine One-act Plays and Musicals by Noel
Coward. Designed to be presented in various combinations
of three bills of three plays.
Manchester Opera House, 15 October, 1935. Phoenix Theatre,
London 29 January, 1936
Tonight at 8.30:
A series of one-act plays, the parts depict the decline of Western
civilization, and are performed in different combinations to make
up three shows.
We Were Dancing
Comedy; 2 Scenes
After spending an evening trying to convince her husband to let
her go to Australia with her lover, next morning, a young wife
has second thoughts about the
affair and decides against it.
Louise Chateris
Hubert Chateris
Karl Sandys
Clara Bethel
George Davies
Eva Blake
Maj. Blake
Ippaga
Country club members
The Astonished Heart
Play 6 Scenes
Through a series of flashbacks, in reverse order, the stormy
passionate affair of a psychiatrist and his wife's friend is
shown culminating in his death by suicide.
Christian Faber
Barbara Faber
Leonora Vail
Tim Verney
Susan Birch
Sir Reginald French
Ernest
Red Peppers
Sketch with music
George and Lily Pepper have a music-hall act which is decidedly
not up to scratch. They row with the manager after a poor first
house, and during the second the musical director makes their
act look ridiculous.
George and Lily Pepper, a music-hall duo
Mr Edwards, House Manager
Bert Bendy, Musical Director
Alf, call boy
Mabel Grace, an old actress
Hands Across the Sea
Comedy
Colonial couple, the Wadhursts, are mistakenly at the London
party given by the scatterbrained Piggie Gilpin. Piggy has just
returned from a world tour and takes them for people she met
on her travels. They are subjected to meaningless conversations
about people they do not know by a hostess who has forgotten
who they are.
Peter Gilpin, a young navy man
Alistair Corbett, a young navy man
Mr Wadhurst, a pleasant middle aged man
Mrs Wadhurst, his wife
Mr Burnham,
'Bogey' Gosling, handsome young marine
Lady Maureen 'Piggie' Gilpin
Claire Wedderburn
Walters, parlour maid
Fumed Oak
Unpleasant Comedy 2 scenes
Henry Gow is a poor down-trodden male in a household
of dreadful women, a sloppy wife, a snivelling daughter, and
a hideous nagging mother-in-law. After a few drinks at the
pub he tells them all what he thinks, takes his savings, and
leaves them to it for good.
Henry Gow
Doris, his wife
Elsie, their daughter
Mrs Rockett, mother-in-law
Shadow Play
Musical Fantasy - 1 scene
A woman, about to be divorced, takes an overdose of pills
and relives the happiness the couple had in the early years.
Her memories bring them back together.
Victoria Gayforth
Simon Gayforth
Martha Cunningham
George Cunningham
Lena
Sibyl Heston
Michael Doyle
A young man
Hodge
Family Album
Victorian Comedy with music - 1 scene :
Published 1936. Produced Theatre Royal, Birmingham 9 December,
1935; Phoenix Theatre, London 9 January, 1936
In 1860 when the Featherways family gather to hear the will
of their deceased father, drink makes them reveal what they
all thought about the old boy, a mean, pompous, and profligate
bounder. Daughter Lavinia and butler Burrows liven up the
proceedings even more by admitting that they have burnt the
will that would have left the family fortune to father's
mistress.
Jasper Featherways
Richard Featherways
Jane Featherways
Lavinia Featherways
Charles Winter
Harriet Winter
Edward Valance
Emily Valance
Burrows
Ways and Means
Comedy 3 Scenes: Published 1936. Produced
Phoenix Theatre, London 5 May, 1936
The Cartwrights have become unwelcome guests at Olive's Riviera
house; they are broke. Their difficulties are solved when their
host is robbed by a friendly chauffeur who goes halves with them,
leaving them bound and gagged to allay suspicion.
Toby Cartwright
Stella Cartwright, his wife
Lord Chapworth
Olive Lloyd-Ransome
Princess Elena Krasiloff
Gaston, French valet
Stevens, chauffeur
Nanny
Still Life
Play 5 Scenes: Published 1936. Produced Phoenix
Theatre, London 5 May, 1936
Set in a railway station refreshment room with the comic
activities of its personel, Alec and Laura, both married,
meet and fall in love, have a few furtive moments of happiness
and the agonies of guilt, and then finally part, their
farewell being cruelly spoilt by a garrulous friend.
Alec Harvey
Laura Jesson
Albert Godby, ticket collector
Bill and Johnny, soldiers
Myrtle Bagot
Beryl Waters
Mildred
Stanley, a young man
Dolly Messiter
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