Coward - Quadrille, Peace in Our Time, Tonight at 8.30 (iii)

Nol Coward
COLLECTED PLAYS: SEVEN

QUADRILLE, PEACE IN OUR TIME, TO-NIGHT AT 8.30
(WE WERE DANCING, SHADOW PLAY, FAMILY ALBUM,
STAR CHAMBER)

Quadrille: Miss Fontanne plays the madcap Marchioness with the crackle and sheen of a five-pound note. Her eyes mock marvellously, her voice cuts like a knife into a wedding cake, and the scene in Act Three, on the eve of her elopement with Mr. Lunt, is as delicious as crushed ice. Evening Standard, 1952

The idea of Peace in Our Time, Coward wrote, was conceived in Paris shortly after the Liberation I began to suspect that the physical effect of four years intermittent bombing is far less damaging to the intrinsic character of a nation than the spiritual effect of four years enemy occupation. This in time led me to wonder what might have happened to London and England if, in 1940, the Germans had successfully invaded and occupied us, which they so very nearly did.

The volume also contains four plays from the To-night at 8.30 sequence: We Were Dancingprovides a marvellously compact illustration of the way the English public school spirit prevails even in moments of strenuous passion (The Times, 1971). Coward in 1954 wrote: Shadow Play is a musical fantasy which gave Gertie and me a chance to sing as romantically as we could, dance in the moonlight and, we hoped, convince the audience that we were very fascinating indeed. It always went extremely well so I must presume that we succeeded; and Family Album is a sly satire on Victorian hypocrisy, adorned with an unobtrusive but agreeable musical score. It was stylized both in its dcor and its performance, was a joy to play and provided the whole talented company with good parts. Star Chamber, closely based on Cowards experiences trying to co-ordinate his Actors Orphanage charity committee, was only once performed and is published here for the first time.

in the same series
(introduced by Sheridan Morley)

Coward
Collected Plays: One
(Hay Fever, The Vortex, Fallen Angels, Easy Virtue)

Collected Plays: Two
(Private Lives, Bitter-Sweet, The Marquise, Post-Mortem)

Collected Plays: Three
(Design for Living, Cavalcade, Conversation Piece,
and Hands Across the Sea, Still Life, Fumed Oak
from To-night at 8.30)

Collected Plays: Four
(Blithe Spirit, Present Laughter, This Happy Breed,
and Ways and Means, The Astonished Heart, Red Peppers
from To-night at 8.30)

Collected Plays: Five
(Relative Values, Look After Lulu!
Waiting in the Wings, Suite in Three Keys)

Collected Plays: Six
(Semi-Monde, Point Valaine, South Sea Bubble,
Nude With Violin)

also by Nol Coward
Collected Revue Sketches and Parodies
The Complete Lyrics of Nol Coward
Collected Verse
Collected Short Stories
Pomp and Circumstance
A Novel

Autobiography

also available
Coward the Playwright
by John Lahr

Nol Coward

SEVEN

QUADRILLE
PEACE IN OUR TIME
and
We Were Dancing
Shadow Play
Family Album
Star Chamber
from
TO-NIGHT AT 8.30

Introduced by Sheridan Morley

Bloomsbury Methuen Drama
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

www.bloomsbury.com

Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

This collection first published in Great Britain in 1999
by Methuen Publishing Ltd

Quadrille was first published in 1952 by
Heinemann and republished in 1958 in Play Parade Vol. 5
Peace in Our Time was first published in 1947 by
Heinemann and republished in 1958 in Play Parade Vol. 5
To-night at 8.30 was first published in 1936 by Heinemann
and republished in 1954 in Play Parade Vol. 4
Star Chamber was first published in 1999 in this edition

Copyright in all the plays is by the Estate of the late Nol Coward
Introduction by Sheridan Morley
Chronology by Jacqui Russell

Nol Coward has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage
or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action
as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.

All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made
before rehearsals by professionals to Alan Brodie Representation Limited, Paddock Suite, The Courtyard,
55 Charterhouse St, London EC1M 6HA and by amateurs to Samuel French Ltd, 52 Fitzroy Street,
London WIP 6JR. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained.

No rights in incidental music or songs contained in the work are hereby granted and performance rights for any
performance/presentation whatsoever must be obtained from the respective copyright owners.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

eISBN-13: 978-1-4081-7737-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

This, the seventh volume in this series of Cowards plays, contains another wide range of his playwriting: of the two full-length plays, Quadrille is a glittering Victorian comedy of marital misapprehension, and Peace in Our Time a fascinating what-if study of how England might have behaved under German occupation in World War Two. The four short plays are the last selection from the ten that made up To-night at 8.30. We Were Dancing is the opening play of the first group, and is the first Coward play to be set in Samolo, the mythical island he was also to use in a full-length comedy, an operetta and his only novel. Shadow Play is a darker musical one-acter about a couple on the verge of divorce, while Family Album is a slight, sly satire on Victorian family hypocrisy. The last play, Star Chamber, was a standby satirising the fund-raising committee of a charitable home for actors, one not unlike the committee Nol himself had recently chaired for the Actors Orphanage.