Tonight at 8:30

‍Noël Coward collected play titles. His early notebooks contain lists of possible names such as ‘Sour Milk’, ‘Short Cuts’ & ‘Ninepins’. ‘Still Life’ first appeared in a 1924 notebook as the title for a comedy about the obnoxiously rude Bliss family (which soon became Hay Fever), and unlike some of the others on those lists it lingered in the back of Coward’s mind, waiting to be used.

Coward had a hugely successful start to the 1930s with ‘Private Lives’ in 1930, ‘Cavalcade’ in 1931, the revue ‘Words and Music’ in 1932 and ‘Design for Living’ in 1933. However, his romantic comedy with music, ‘Conversation Piece’ and the drama ‘Point Valaine’ (written for his friends and ‘Design for Living’ co-stars Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne) had been less successful. So in 1935 Coward began to write a series of short plays “as acting, singing and dancing vehicles for Gertrude Lawrence and myself.

“The success we had had with ‘Private Lives’ both in London and New York encouraged me to believe that the public liked to see us playing together and this belief, happily for us both and the managements concerned, turned out to be fully justified”. Audiences would be able to see the pair in a light comedy, a drama and a musical number, collected under the title ‘Tonight at 8.30’, (or ‘Tonight at 7.30’ in the pre-London tour, or ‘Today at 2.30’ for the matinée).

The show opened in London at the Phoenix Theatre in January 1936 and as the run progressed more plays were added to the repertoire, with ‘Still Life’ being the last to be added on 18th May, from then until the end of the run on 20th June, depending on the day, the audience would see a different combination of short plays. One evening it would be the light romance ‘We Were Dancing’, the drama ‘The Astonished Heart’ and the musical hall sketch ‘Red Peppers’. On another, they’d see the society comedy ‘Hands Across the Sea’ (apparently based on Louis & Edwina Mountbatten), the suburban comedy ‘Fumed Oak’ and the musical fantasy ‘Shadow Play’.  Or the bill would contain the farce ‘Ways and Means’, the station tea-room drama ‘Still Life’ and a Victorian comedy with music ‘Family Album’. (There was also ‘Star Chamber’, a comedy about a theatrical committee meeting which was tried out once on a Saturday matinée, and never repeated).