Tonight At 8:30

by Noel Coward                 Nov 2013

"Tonight at 8.30" by Noel Coward consists of 10 short plays from which the three below have been chosen.

Still Life: Against a background of the spirited flirtation between the ticket collector and Myrtle, who serves the refreshments, we see the pitiful love affair of Alec Harvey and Laura Jesson, its tentative beginnings and inevitable end. The play was made into the film Brief Encounter.

Cast: John Fisher (Alec Harvey), Helen Pain (Laura Jesson), Karen Evans (Myrtle Bagot), Alex Praska (Beryl Waters), Max Curtis (Stanley), Roger Trayhurn (Albert), Tom Freegard (Bill), Matt Hemmings (Johnnie), Sam Johnson (Mildred), Susan Pearson (Dolly Messiter), Terry Pidgeon (First Customer), Steve Trotman (Second Customer)

Hands Across The Sea: 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.

Cast: Margaret Gregory (Walters), Shirley Dodson (Lady Maureen Gilpin), Godfrey Room (Peter Gilpin), Adrian Peace (Alastair Corbett), Fran Loss (Mrs Wadhurst), Simon Crutchley (Mr Wadhurst), Matt Hemmings (Mr Burnham), Elaine Apps (Clare Wedderburn), Robert Elrick (Major Gosling)

Fumed Oak: Henry Gow was tricked into marrying his awful wife Doris and for years now he has loathed her and their adenoidal child Elsie and his utterly repulsive mother-in-law Mrs Rockett. The play opens at breakfast with the family at their most downtrodden but is the worm about to turn?

Cast: Stuart Jackson (Henry Gow), Karen Evans (Doris Gow), Alex Praska (Elsie Gow), Jane Weston (Mrs Rockett)