Noel Coward

An Intimate Comedy in Three Acts

Private Lives

Presents three comedies of manners by playwright Noel Coward, including "Blithe Spirit," in which a man is visited by the ghost of his first wife; "Hay Fever," the story of a family of bohemians who wreak emotional havoc on weekend visitors; and "Private Lives," in which a newly divorced couple find themselves in adjoining hotel rooms while honeymooning with their new spouses.

Blithe Spirit, Hay Fever, Private Lives

Three Plays

Do Not Disturb (Methuen Modern Plays)

A Romantic Comedy in Three Acts

Quadrille

Hay Fever, the Vortex, Fallen Angels, Easy Virtue (World Classics)

Noel Coward Plays 1

Noel Coward Plays 2 (World Classics)

Sheridan Morley

The simple story of an unconsummated love affair between a suburban doctor and a middle-class housewife, Brief Encounter can claim to be the most romantic film in British cinema. Based by Noel Coward upon his short play Still Life, the screenplay conjures up the drab, emotionally restrained world of post-war Britain better than almost any other literary text. It was nominated for an Oscar at the 1947 Academy Awards. Brief Encounter is perhaps the most moving and fully realized of all David Lean's films. This volume contains a specially commissioned introduction by Coward's biographer, Sheridan Morley.

Brief Encounter

Accompanied by more than two hundred photographs and illustrations, a definitive collection of letters, most never before published, to and from Noël Coward offers an intriguing portrait of the renowned playwright, actor, musician, director, artist, writer, and wit and his correspondence with Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Woolf, Katharine Hepburn, and others. 25,000 first printing.

The Letters of Noël Coward

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. 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.

Ways and Means

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) 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 conver

Hands Across the Sea

Presents a comedy about the gallery of friends, lovers, and theatrical accolytes who constantly invade the London flat of matinee idol Garry Essendine as he prepares for his African tour.

A Light Comedy in Three Acts

Present Laughter

Characters: 6 male, 5 female Interior Set One of the Tonight at 8:30 series, a success in London and New York. The movie Brief Encounter was based on this play. In a suburban rail station, Dr. Harvey removes a cinder from Laura's eye and they fall in love. Subsequent weekly meetings over tea, scenes debating respectability or love, and some sentimental moments transpire before they decide they must part forever. He is accepting a faraway post and she must return to a circumspect

A Play in Five Scenes ; from Tonight at 8:30

Still Life

The Noel Coward musical, "Sail Away," tells the story of a romantic love-affair aboard a cruise ship, with all the classic wit and charm of Broadway's golden era. Recent divorcee Mimi Paragon (a role originated by Elaine Stritch) is stuck serving tourists as one of the ship's hostesses when she is drawn to the much younger and strikingly handsome Johnny Van Mier. Complicating their relationship is a host of eccentric and hilarious cruise ship characters-from cynical and quirky Sweeney couple, to Johnny's dominating and diva-like mother, Mrs. Van Mier, to the wacky novelist Spencer Bollard, and his wide-eyed niece Nancy. The dialogue is peppered with classic Coward witticisms throughout, and the music is composed in the classic Broadway tradition. An enchanting tour-de-farce for theatre groups and musical lovers alike, "Sail Away" is a journey you will not forget!"

Sail Away

In 'Easy Virtue', John Whittaker brings home his new wife for the first time. Some years older than her husband, Larita is a woman of class, beauty and experience, with a worldview, we find, in stark contrast to the single-minded morality of her new sisters- and mother-in-law. At first a tense truce reigns, but after a summer of boredom and mental lassitude, Larita is confronted with the facts of her past: scandalous according to her outraged in-laws; but mere truth to Larita, who refuses to be brow-beaten into hypocrisy by the priggish social system of her new relations. 'Easy Virtue' was first performed in New York in 1926.

Easy Virtue

Elyot and Amanda, once married and now honeymooning with new spouses at the same hotel, meet by chance, reignite the old spark and impulsively elope. After days of being reunited, they again find their fiery romance alternating between passions of love and anger. Their aggrieved spouses appear and a roundelay of affiliations ensues as the women first stick together, then apart, and new partnerships are formed.

Noel Coward

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