First produced in 1925, Hay Fever is technically a masterpiece. A comedy of bad manners which starts with the arrival of four guests, invited independently by different members of the Bliss family for a weekend at their country house near Maidenhead. The promise of an idyllic and peaceful weekend is quickly trounced by the self-absorbed eccentricities of the family who leave the guests to slink away humiliated, embarrassed and abandoned.It does not date it is in the highest mood of fantastic comedy, it is deliciously heartless and therefore delicioiusly alive and fresh The Times
First produced in 1925, Hay Fever is technically a masterpiece. A comedy of bad manners which starts with the arrival of four guests, invited independ...
One of the Tonight at 8:30 series produced in London and New York. In psychiatrist Christian Faber's drawing room sits his weeping wife and his sad assistants, waiting for the siren Leonora. In four flashbacks the story emerges: Leonora, a girlhood chum, visited Christian's wife and was introduced to him. She set out to capture her friend's husband but was captured herself. She threw him over because of his jealousy. He jumped out of the window. Leonora has come because Christian calls for her on his death bed. She returns slowly from his...
Characters: 4 male, 3 female
Scenery: Interior
One of the Tonight at 8:30 series produced in London and New York. In psychiatrist Christian Faber'...
One of the "Tonight at 8:30" series produced in London and New York. In a bedroom in Mrs. Lloyd Ransome's fabulous villa on the Cote d'Azur are heiress Stella Cartwright and her husband, a gambler. They are plagued by debts and their prolonged stay at the villa is becoming embarrassing when a scandalous chauffeur attempts to rob them and ends up saving their honor.
Comedy Chararcters: 5 male, 4 female
Interior set
One of the "Tonight at 8:30" series produced in London and New York. In a bedroom in Mrs. Ll...
One of the "Tonight At 8:30" series produced in London and New York. Lady Gilpin (Piggie) is so busy with social duties and gossip that she has no time for coherent thinking. She is set aflutter when her drawing room is suddenly filled with her husband's naval conferees, blueprint delivery boys and dumpy Mr. and Mrs. Wadhurst from the Far East, who flighty Piggie mistakes for the Rawlingsons. The Wadhursts overhear intimate phone conversations, are stumbled over, spilled upon and completely ignored before Piggie finally gets it...
Comedy / Characters: 6 male, 3 female
Scenery: Interior
One of the "Tonight At 8:30" series produced in London and New York. Lady Gilpin (Piggie) ...
"I will ever be grateful for the almost psychic gift that enabled me to write "Blithe Spirit" in five days during one of the darkest years of the war."-Noel Coward. Written in 1941, "Blithe Spirit" remained the longest-running comedy in British Theatre for three decades. Plotted around the central role of one of Coward's best loved characters, a spirit medium Madame Arcati (originally performed by Margaret Rutherford) Coward's play is an escapist comedy about a man whose two previous wives return to haunt him.
"I will ever be grateful for the almost psychic gift that enabled me to write "Blithe Spirit" in five days during one of the darkest years of the war....
At the centre of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs. His line in harmless, infatuated debutantes is largely tolerated but playing closer to home is not. Just before he escapes on tour to Africa the full extent of his misdemeanours is discovered. And all hell breaks loose. Noel Coward's Present Laughter premiered in the early years of the Second World War just as such privileged lives were threatened with fundamental social change.
At the centre of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs. His ...
"We've stood up - we've lain down - we've concentrated. We've sat interminably while that tiresome old woman recited extremely unflattering verses at us. We're endured five ""seances ""- we've watched her fling herself in and out of trances until we're dizzy, and at the end of it all we find ourselves exactly where we were at the beginning."
Researching for his new novel, Charles Condomine invites the implausible medium Madame Arcati to his house for a seance. Whilst consumed in a trance, Madame Arcati unwittingly summons the ghost of Charles's dead wife, Elvira. Appearing only to...
"We've stood up - we've lain down - we've concentrated. We've sat interminably while that tiresome old woman recited extremely unflattering verses ...
Written as a vehicle for Coward's own acting talents alongside his frequent stage partner Gertrude Lawrence, Tonight at 8:30 is Coward's ambitious series of ten one-act plays which saw him breathe new life into the one-act form.
From vaudeville to satire, from farce to intricate comedy of manners, from melodrama to romance, these plays span the full, glorious range of Coward's writing. Peep through your fingers at the chaotic Red Peppers music-hall show, witness a bankrupt couple use all Ways and Means to scheme their way out of debt, and break your heart along...
Written as a vehicle for Coward's own acting talents alongside his frequent stage partner Gertrude Lawrence, Tonight at 8:30 is Coward's amb...
