"Tonight at 8.30" - Noel Coward (Jermyn Street Theatre)

[joem]

Nine one-act plays by Noel Coward divided into three themes with the possibility of seeing them all on some days in a marathon. Which is what I'll be doing.

The themes and plays are as follow:

    Bedroom Farces (We Were Dancing, Ways and Means, Shadow Play)

    Secret Hearts (Star Chamber, Red Peppers, Still Life)

    Nuclear Families (Family Album, Hands Across the Sea, The Astonished Heart)


Has anyone been to them or is planning to???

[Deleted]

I saw "Secret Hearts" in previews last week which I thought was great - "Still Life" (ie the original version of Brief Encounter) was the highlight but the other two were also great. Impressive staging and set changes for such a small space.

Tempted to catch the other two but put off a bit by the pricing (the preview was £15 but tickets are now £30)

[Steve]

Apr 23, 2018 7:51:48 GMT @xanderl said:

I saw "Secret Hearts" in previews last week which I thought was great - "Still Life" (ie the original version of Brief Encounter) was the highlight but the other two were also great. Impressive staging and set changes for such a small space.

Tempted to catch the other two but put off a bit by the pricing (the preview was £15 but tickets are now £30)

Thanks Joe and Xanderl,

Must see "Still Life" then, as who wouldn't want to see the original uncensored "Brief Encounter!?"

That one will sell the fastest, I expect, so I suppose they will be strict about reserving most tickets for "Secret Hearts" to the three-play-package, otherwise it will quickly become a two play package lol.

For completists, this 9 play version of Noel Coward's 10 play cycle is a tiny bit disconcerting, as they've left out the play "Fumed Oak." I suppose, if they added "Fumed Oak" to one of the show-bundles, it would last too long, so swings and roundabouts.

[joem]

The full day package on Saturdays and Sundays goes for £75.

Hadn't realised they'd left "Fumed Oak" out! Annoying for completists.

[NeilVHughes]

Will be there for the Sun 6th all dayer, the £75 package includes a drink and a signed programme.

[profquatermass]

Fumed Oak is a nasty little piece IMO and definitely the one to drop. Also slightly hard to cast as it requires the ingenue to play a schoolgirl. It's always struck me as odd that there are 10 plays but only three were done each night - it must have been quite complicated to see them all

[TallPaul]

Apr 23, 2018 9:12:30 GMT NeilVHughes said:

the £75 package includes a drink and a signed programme.

Signed by Noel? That's worth £75 of anybody's money!

[dani]

There are some favourable reviews for this today, e.g. Independent and FT (both 4*).

[Deleted]

Billington's 2014 review of the English Touring Theatre revival ...

We are used to all-day stagings of Shakespeare. A marathon viewing of three Noel Coward triple bills, however, sounds like a banquet of souffles. In the event, the nine plays, written by Coward in 1935-6 and jointly presented by the Nuffield and English Touring Theatre under Blanche McIntyre's direction, not only prove unexpectedly nourishing, but also reveal a lot about the author himself.

Paul Taylor's review of the Jermyn Street production ...

An all-day Noel Coward? We associate theatrical marathons with heavy stuff such as ancient Greek tetralogies and Shakespeare history cycles, not with the stinging flippancy and lightness of touch of the Master's output. We're not normally in the habit of packing our flasks and girding our loins for an epic session with him.

Anyway ... odd that some reviews (and the Jermyn Street site) talk about this as the first London revival of the full cycle - Jermyn St site says

From the railway station of Still Life to the Pacific island of We Were Dancing; from the music-hall of Red Peppers to the ache of The Astonished Heart, this is the first complete London revival since 1936.

(the don't say complete revival of what, though!)

The ETT revival wasn't complete either, as they did "Fumed Oak" but not "Star Chamber". Then again according to Wikipedia 

Six of the plays in the cycle were first presented at the Manchester Opera House beginning in October 1935. A seventh was added on the subsequent provincial tour, and the final three, including Star Chamber, were added during the London run. Coward directed all ten pieces, and each starred Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Coward said that he wrote them as "acting, singing, and dancing vehicles for Gertrude Lawrence and myself".[3]



...

The play's only London performance in the original run was on 21 March 1936 at the Phoenix Theatre. After this maiden performance, Coward withdrew it from the cycle. The Broadway production in 1936 omitted Star Chamber as did the Canadian productions in 1938, the Broadway revivals in 1948 and 1967 and the 1981 Lyric Theatre production in London.

...


The play was not included in the Heinemann edition of the Tonight at 8:30 plays published in 1936, and was first published in 1939 in Rose Window, a tribute to St Bartholomew's Hospital by twenty-five authors

So I guess ETT did the cycle of 9 as "approved" by Coward. 

Shame Jermyn Street couldn't squeeze the 10th one in (making one of the collections a 3 hour-ish four play performance) then they really could claim the first complete revival in the UK!

[tonyloco]

Old habits die hard. I left the Noel Coward show (Secret Hearts) at the Jermyn Street Theatre in the interval last night because I wasn’t enjoying it at all, which means I missed the ‘Brief Encounter’ play, Still Life.



The first play, Star Chamber is about a group of theatricals who comprise the board of a theatrical charity having a meeting to discuss a building project. It had no actual plot and went nowhere and its sole aim seemed to be to show all the characters as rather self-obsessed actors and actresses. Gently humorous, I suppose, but hardly the stuff of theatre without any plot to speak of. Even the inclusion of a pet dog seemed pointless.



Then came Red Peppers in which the two variety artistes, George and Lily Pepper, were presented almost as grotesques, with two pairs of ridiculous red wigs who overplayed their two comic duets in a farcical way. We can see from photographs that this is not the way Coward and Gertrude Lawrence did it and we have an HMV recording of extracts from the play that tell us how it was meant to sound. Yes, I know the world has moved on from 1935 but I guess I haven't because I was expecting this to be a faithful reproduction of the original. When Rosemary Ashe and Jeremy Rose sang the wrong words to the last line of ‘Men About Town’ I decided it was time I became a man about town myself and left. I know I should have stayed for Still Life but I can always watch Brief Encounter, the movie!


By the way, apart from the directorial decision to perform the Pepper's act in a way which I heartily disliked, I thought the rest of the production that I saw was excellent and all nine performers were fine, so good on the Jermyn Street Theatre for this mammoth undertaking.

[profquatermass]

The extract from The Red Peppers in Star! is pretty farcical as is the full version in Meet Me Tonight. I assume that Coward approved of both of those interpretations but even if he didn't, surely actors aren't meant to be impersonating the originator of a role, even if he was the author?

[tonyloco]

Apr 27, 2018 16:40:48 GMT profquatermass said:

The extract from The Red Peppers in Star! is pretty farcical as is the full version in Meet Me Tonight. I assume that Coward approved of both of those interpretations but even if he didn't, surely actors aren't meant to be impersonating the originator of a role, even if he was the author?

No, I guess it was just me in that I didn't like the way the two musical numbers were done. In my nefarious career as a variety and music hall pianist I have accompanied both of those duets on various occasions, admittedly not in the context of a complete 'Red Peppers', and I always felt they were of a somewhat more superior artistic quality than what I saw last night, particularly 'Men about Town'. But it's my loss and I was just giving my view of how the performance struck me.

[jasper]

I saw Secret Hearts this afternoon. I liked Star Chamber, but the gag seemed a bit extended. Anyone who has had to go to a boring meeting will find some parts of it strike home. The second one of Red Peppers was better. I remember seeing it with John Standing and in the film Star. I think the characters are meant to be second rate and the musical numbers are not meant to be performed well since they are not meant to be very good. It is the time when music hall was declining and acts were not necessarily very good. The other two have played it in the same manner, so assume that was the way Coward wrote it. It reminded me of Maugham in the way working class characters are depicted. In Maugham' films they are always arguing. The third play was well done and they had a detailed set with a wonder counter for the tea room. I thought they should have opened it for the interval. It had real cakes. During the performance the plate of cakes were dropped much to the amusement of the cast who struggled to keep straight faces.

[cherokee]

Apr 28, 2018 18:12:03 GMT jasper said:

Apr 28, 2018 19:12:03 GMT 1 jasper said: It had real cakes. During the performance the plate of cakes were dropped much to the amusement of the cast who struggled to keep straight faces.



This happened when I saw it too. I assume it's supposed to happen. Particularly as there were a series of lines around it which I don't think were ad libbed! 

[Deleted]

Well. I saw 'Nuclear Families' last night. It did not start at 8:30.

It was a mildly diverting evening with the ladies stealing the honours for me. Sara Crowe in 'Family Album', dear old Rosie Ashe in 'Hands Across The Sea' and Miranda Foster in 'The Astonished Heart' - all smashing.

But who knew that Ian Hallard was such a delightful little fox? No wonder Mark Gatiss always looks so happy.

[joem]

The nine-plays-in-a-day Cowardathon is a true theatrical event. One of those days when you feel you've achieved something simply by sitting on your backside for seven and a half hours (or so). But on such a lovely sunny day in London, to give it up to sit in a darkened basement all day with barely enough time to have a couple of meals (Kiln and Kulu Kulu) merits a pat on the back.

For me the most successful was the first trilogy (Secret Hearts). The opener "Star Chamber" might be a slight play but it is very entertaining, taking aim not just at luvvies but also at the committee system this country is so fond of. The luvvie them is continued on "Red Peppers" with its music-hall married couple on the lower ends of the northern circuit.  "Still Life", the inspiration for Brief Encounter, may be very well known but it is still an impressive piece of writing. It should be shown permanently on double bills with "The Browning Version" to those wanting to know what the famous English reserve was all about.

"Nuclear Families" groups together three plays with family themes of which "Hands Across The Sea", with its farcical situation comedy on people entertaining people they barely - in some cases don't - know is perhaps the best known and most successful. 

The final trilogy "Bedroom Farces" seem to be vehicles to show off Coward and his favourite actress Gertrude Lawrence. They all feature a strong male and female lead, and are peppered with songs and love stories. It has to be said that "Shadow Play" seems pretty experimental for its era, with its use of shifting time and psychology.

The cast were all superb - it cannot be easy to play nine characters in the same day, in different plays - and the witty link speeches and comments drew proper attention to the backstage team who worked overtime to create nine distinct and distinctive sets. The transformation for "Still Life" was particularly impressive and attracted due approval from the enthusiastic audience.

A very worthy and enjoyable exercise which continues the ascent of the Jermyn Street Theatre from an interesting little fringe venue in the heart of London to a theatre which is now being taken notice of at national level.

[NeilVHughes]

joem, on my way to today’s performances, your review has compounded my anticipation.

The challenge will be finding a quiet somewhere to soak up the sunshine in the gaps, I’m sure there is a Stella with my name on it, nearby, only in moderation of course due to the backstage facilities.

[joem]

May 6, 2018 9:08:17 GMT NeilVHughes said:

joem , on my way to today’s performances, your review has compounded my anticipation.

The challenge will be finding a quiet somewhere to soak up the sunshine in the gaps, I’m sure there is a Stella with my name on it, nearby, only in moderation of course due to the backstage facilities.

Plenty of places to choose from.

Backstage facilities... not a good place for a Stella in sunshine as it is stuck in the basement but Waterstone's has a nice caff with good coffee and a handy facility.

[NeilVHughes]

An excellent days Theatre with the added benefit of sharing it with good company, from the absurdity of the opening play (We Were Dancing)to the heartbreak of the final play (Still Life), a pure delight throughout.

Tempted to catch up with the three new one act plays tomorrow, has anyone seen them?